There's scaffolding and green gauze covering the outside of Victoria Allan's development on the New Praya in Kennedy Town. Workers have gutted the interior and are busy reworking and reinforcing the interior of the eight-floor structure.
It's taken six years and a blizzard of paperwork filed with various government departments, but an ambitious renovation of the entire building is finally ready to proceed. By the end of the year, Allan says her pet project should come to fruition, turning a tong lau tenement building into luxury, loft-style apartments.
The project will add an elevator to what was a walk-up, and each floor will have an expansive one-bedroom apartment. The 1,350 sqft flats will be open-plan and have full sea views
Allan, 40, a property agent who is originally from Perth, Australia, started the project because she felt there was a lack of quirky or interesting upscale apartments in the city. 'The whole idea behind it is to find space that I liked,' Allan says. 'To have something cool and a more unusual layout for Hong Kong, and a quirky location.'
Allan, who runs the Mid-Levels property brokerage Habitat Property, is one of a handful of Hongkongers who have bought old walk-up residential buildings and taken on the task of renovating them into high-end apartments.
The process is popular in Mid-Levels neighbourhoods such as SoHo, where people such as Sean Clifford and Dare Koslow have bought up portfolios of apartments, stripped them and created upscale rental pads designed for young executives (see story on page 25).
In Kennedy Town, Allan felt there weren't enough one-bedroom large apartments for high-earning residents who have had a taste of life overseas.