YET another Hong Kong hotel is slated to face the wrecker's ball. A sign outside the 20-year-old Harbour Hotel, which is owned by the China Travel Service Group (CTSG), says the hotel is due to be redeveloped. The hotel has been closed since the end of last month and, with the exception of a few staff, is vacant. According to one source, the hotel is due to be demolished in a few months but no decision has yet been reached by the hotel's owners on whether to build a new hotel or an office complex on the site. The decision on which way to proceed with the development was further complicated because CTSG owned the adjacent commercial building site. No decision had been made when, or if, this building would be torn down. The 156-room Harbour Hotel, on Gloucester Road, Wan Chai, is yet another hotel that has been threatened by Hong Kong's booming property market. According to the source, the decision to demolish the building was partly due to the management's unwillingness to spend the funds to improve the hotel after the Government introduced new fire and safety regulations. Originally, the hotel had 200 rooms but was forced to close 46 rooms because they did not comply with the Government's new standards. ''When the decision was made to redevelop the site it was actually made in light of the new regulations,'' the source said. ''They [the hotel's owners] had to do a lot of things and they ran into difficulties.'' The source said that in the final analysis it would have cost the CTSG too much to comply with the new regulations.
