Entertainment tycoon Steven Lo Kit-sing aims to draw customers from Hong Kong's top entertainment district, Lan Kwai Fong, with a renovated nightclub building on the fringes of Wan Chai and Causeway Bay - but Lan Kwai Fong godfather Allan Zeman isn't shaking in his shoes.
Lo says he has turned the Tonnochy Tower, former home to one of the best-known nightclubs on Hong Kong Island, into a one-stop shop for all forms of entertainment.
Dubbed 'The Tonno', the three-storey, 3,345 square metre centre will open on Thursday with a pub, club, live-band bar, restaurant and karaoke box replete with 31 rooms.
'Hong Kong has too few entertainment places for tourists,' Lo said. 'I had a couple of friends come visit from the US and Canada recently, and I did not know where to take them after dinner. They have tried Lan Kwai Fong many times. It will be good if there can be more new entertainment venues.'
Lo, chairman of bma Investment and manager of soccer team South China, said he was not aiming to directly take on Lan Kwai Fong with the new venue, in which he has invested HK$100 million, although he hoped to attract some of its patrons.
Zeman, the chairman of Lan Kwai Fong Holdings, said he welcomed the new competitor but was not worried it would affect his business, agreeing that Hong Kong needed many more entertainment areas.