New facility to rival HK Club

HONGKONG and Shanghai Hotels, which owns the famous Peninsula hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, is to open a giant private members' club spread over three floors of Dorset House and Hongkong Telecom Tower, now nearing completion in Taikoo Place, Quarry Bay. It will contain a private health spa, executive dining club and library, hopefully on a par if not better than the Hongkong Club in Central, according to Stephan Spurr, Swire Properties' general manager (east division). The club will be exclusive to corporate tenants of Swire in the area, which are swelling in number by the day, and is seen as an integral part of the hong's continuing drive to upgrade the whole area. ''We said we would make Taikoo Place a self-contained business community and now it is really happening, probably faster than most people had expected,'' said Mr Spurr, speaking yesterday at the topping out of Dorset House and Hongkong Telecom Tower, the$1.1 billion twin office block being jointly developed by Swire and Hongkong Telecom. A few years ago Taikoo Place was a rather dour and sorry-looking conglomeration of light industrial buildings with little in the way of ancillary facilities. Today, it is fast becoming a modern, high-technology, top grade office district, proving an attractive decentralised alternative for companies scared off by the spiralling rents in Central. The opening of Devon House by Swire last year, the first truly Grade A office block in the area, has sent rentals and land prices in the area soaring. Restaurants and service companies have sprung up in neighbouring side streets, pushing out tatty old car mechanics shops and glass cutters. Even Nichole Garnaut and Christian Rhomberg's '97 Group is looking at expanding its trendy restaurant and nightclub business into the area, and has recently targeted a godown in a Quarry Bay back street to convert. A few years go there was no real top grade office space in the area, with inferior space in the area commanding very low monthly rents. Today, sole leasing agent First Pacific Davies is looking for $40 a square foot for the last remaining six floors in Dorset House, which might sound a lot but is still cheap compared with average rents now in Central, Wan Chai and Tsim Sha Tsui. ''Decentralisation used to mean moving from Central to Wan Chai. Now average monthly rents in Wan Chai are $53 a square foot, companies are looking further afield,'' said Mr Haynes, an executive director of First Pacific Davies. Hongkong Telecom is to shift its entire headquarters into 38 storeys of the taller of the two new towers currently under construction by Gammon Construction. The 39 storeys in adjoining Dorset House are being let out piecemeal. Although Dorset House is not scheduled for completion until the end of the year, its 488,600 sq ft designated for rentals is already 84 per cent committed. ICI, Citibank, Bank of America, Bluebell Inc and United Distillers are among the big names that have been lured by new-found bright lights of Quarry Bay to become Dorset House's principal tenants. Citibank will be taking 10 floors to house its retail operations which are being relocated from Hopewell Centre in Wan Chai. However, its headquarters will remain at Citibank Plaza in Garden Road, Central. There are more monster buildings to come. Low-rise godowns are being replaced with high-rise office blocks. The waterfront South China Morning Post Building, bought by Swire for $500 million in December 1992, will be torn down next year when this newspaper moves its production facilities to new premises in Tai Po. It will be replaced by a new high-rise 337,000 sq ft office building, to be known as Lincoln House, continuing Swire's trend of naming buildings in the area after English counties. The nearby Toppan Building, bought in March last year for $750 million, will be replaced by a 475,000 sq ft office block to be christened Oxford House. Vacant possession will be given no later than 1996. This is seen as a welcome and strategic addition to the Swire portfolio. Swire already owns 1.8 million sq ft of light industrial and office space in Taikoo Place in the shape of Warwick, Somerset and Cornwall Houses. The redevelopment of Toppan Building will enable Swire to plug a gap, so it can link Quarry Bay MTR station and its buildings in Taikoo Place to sprawling Citiplaza office, retail and residential complex in neighbouring Taikoo Shing through a chain of elevated, air-conditioned pedestrian walkways. Commuters will be able to walk all the way from the Quarry Bay MTR station to Taikoo Shing without getting wet and without setting foot outside of Swire property. On completion of its present redevelopment plans for Taikoo Place and Citiplaza, Swire will have a portfolio of more than four million sq ft of high quality office space on eastern Hong Kong Island with a new office population of 10,000 people in Taikoo Place alone. In addition to constructing new buildings, Swire is upgrading existing buildings in its portfolio, with the renovation of Warwick House first on the cards. The renovation and expansion of Citiplaza is also under way, to provide further retail and office space, including a 21-storey office tower with a gross floor area of more than 617,000 sq ft. Reconstruction of the retail space is expected to be completed by 1996, with the completion of the office tower following in 1997. Meanwhile, CITIC Pacific is looking to redevelop the Dah Chong Hong Building bordering Taikoo Place, although no details have been released.