SATURDAY night, 8 pm, and Lan Kwai Fong doesn't come to a standstill, despite the strobe lights, reflectors and creative huddle of a photo shoot on the corner of Trendy Street. Passers-by pass by, craned necks swiftly revert to norm, and curious glances slip disinterestedly off the cover boy like high heels off the rain-slicked paving stones.
Allan Zeman isn't head-turning material. The only weekend revellers who recognise him are staff on their way to work at Le Bar Bat, the new members-only bar in which he has a stake (Dracula pun intended), and the maitre d' at another of his ventures.
Funny though, because Mr Zeman is far and away the most powerful, influential and downright wealthy player in Lan Kwai Fong.
Mention his name and chances are most people will be puzzled. Others will be aware of him as the occasional object of social page attention, perhaps as a man somehow involved with concert promoters Arena Group. Dig a little deeper into those memory files and the case of the man who had his $20 million yacht stolen (presumably by mainland crooks) comes to mind. Then there's all the fuss this week about the opening of Le Bar Bat on the corner of Lan Kwai Fong previously filled by Scotties.
OK, so we've placed the guy. Thinning, centre-parted hair, slightly uncomfortable look before the camera, colourful jackets, no socks. Now what? Well, how about this: by his own estimation, Mr Zeman owns between 65 and 70 per cent of the property and retail, restaurant and bar outlets in Hong Kong's most popular night-time destination - and he wants to own more. Within months, Lan Kwai Fong will boast at least three new venues in which Mr Zeman has a share. Within the next year or two, Zeman-led redevelopment will have drastically changed the area's skyline.
'Before Allan, we had an idea to make this area exclusive, up-beat, upmarket. But it mushroomed because of Allan Zeman into something far bigger, brighter and better than we ever anticipated,' says Dick Kaufman, the former manager at Mr Zeman's bar, California. 'His business prowess and ideas made it happen. Sure, the rest of the entrepreneurs have contributed to the success, but they don't have that depth and breadth of vision. Nor, quite frankly, do they have the depth of financial resources. They all have to worry about paying the rent, about the bank manager.' Mr Zeman doesn't. They pay him the rent. He is way out of the reach of bank managers. Press clippings on Mr Zeman usually describe him as a 'garment tycoon'. That is one word too many. The Canadian-born businessman in fact controls a business empire consisting of garment manufacturing firm Colby and Staton, which is about to expand its office space to another floor in the Citicorp Centre, a massively profitable luxury yacht manufacturing company with shipyards in Aberdeen and Taiwan, a company involved in 21 different property projects around British Columbia and Seattle in the United States, property concerns in China and Thailand, and interests in companies ranging from the concert promoters to Mr Kaufman's own firm, DKA.