Two-year delay for arts hub Arts hub progress depends on 'financing options'

Rising costs and a construction conflict will delay the completion of major facilities at the West Kowloon arts hub by at least two years, according to a revised design unveiled yesterday.

The delay of the HK$21.6 billion project is due in part to the construction of the cross-border high-speed railway, a terminal for which will occupy part of the arts hub site, the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority said.

Authority chief executive Michael Lynch said it was too early to specify the cost increase the project was facing, but that the 'revised phasing' announced yesterday was one way to deal with it. 'We are in dialogue with the government at the moment about serious issues in regard to contributions the government will be making to infrastructure costs and the green initiatives,' he said. A bond issue was one financing option under consideration, he said.

According to the original timetable recommended by the government when it sought funding from the legislature in 2008, 12 performing arts venues would be completed by 2015 in the project's first phase.

However, the new schedule released yesterday promises that only part of the 5,000-tree park, an outdoor theatre, an arts pavilion and a Cantonese opera centre will be finished by that year.

Three black-box theatres will be postponed until 2017, subject to progress on the high-speed rail project's West Kowloon terminal.