A developer will preserve part of a 74-year-old shophouse in Mong Kok after being offered an incentive by the government.
The front portion of the grade-three historical building at 179 Prince Edward Road West, built by a top manager of the China Motor Bus Company, will remain while a 13-storey hotel rises behind it.
The preservation was made possible when the government said it would relax plot ratio restrictions on the site, allowing a slightly more intensive development.
Edwin Leong Siu-hung, chairman of developer Tai Hung Fai Enterprise Company, said he had been looking at demolition in 2007, but changed his mind after the government approached him with the incentive.
'It would be a pity to see the whole building disappear and be replaced by a concrete block. So we decided to do something for the Mong Kok district, where we've had a long-term investment history,' Leong said.
Government officials called the decision a success. But a leading conservationist lamented that preserving only the facade appeared to have become the norm for grade-three buildings, the lowest level on the heritage register, which have no legal protection from demolition.
Leong said construction of an ordinary 50-room hotel on the 250 square metre site would have cost in the tens of millions of dollars but the preservation work would double the sum to about HK$120 million.