Central Police Station shows how heritage conservation is best paired with business sense

Your correspondent Nicole Wong (“Heritage conversation is not a priority in Hong Kong where the profit motive prevails”, May 7) has got to the heart of the matter. Often, heritage conservation advocates chanting slogans have no idea that the build-own-operate funding model is the central pillar of a viable business plan.

Take the Central Police Station, which opens to the public later this month, as an example. The Hong Kong Jockey Club charities trust financed the restoration, while the Jockey Club Central Police Station will operate the art gallery and museum as a business to generate operating income. All of this was mapped out before the project for adaptive reuse of heritage began.

The different fates of two heritage buildings Hong Kong government saved

If there is no sustainable income plan to support a project over its lifetime, nobody would buy into it. Only financially sound plans will survive, not to mention the beauty of a heritage preservation idea.

Edmond Pang, Fanling