Tearin’ Down The Ritz

It’s easy to miss the Ritz-Carlton. The unassuming, pinkish building on Chater Road is dwarfed by Central’s skyscrapers, with only a small street entrance to welcome guests. So when the news broke that Lai Sun Holdings will knock it down this year to build a premium-rate office building instead, not that many people really gave a damn.

What is interesting, however, is what this demolition represents. A perfectly serviceable building, just 14 years old, is to be torn down to capitalize on Central’s booming land rates. How disposable has our city become?

Opened in August 1993, the Ritz-Carlton was originally part of a plan to develop a huge hotel complex in the area, linking the hotel to the Furama Kempinski next door. The plan fell through and the Furama Hotel was torn down for an office building in 2001, and now the Ritz will finally follow suit. It will officially close its doors on February 1.

“I tend to think we are an oasis in the Central Business District, just off the beaten path,” says Mark Lettenbichler, the hotel’s vice-president and general manager who has worked there for a decade. In late March, he will join many of his 340-strong team of staff to witness the demolition of the hotel and formally bid farewell. All managerial staff can opt to relocate to other Ritz-Carltons, while the rest have been promised first consideration when the new Ritz-Carlton opens in Kowloon in 2009.

Also sad to be leaving “his favorite hotel to date” is pastry chef Richard Long. He says he is going to miss his four years working in the hotel because he will miss the efficiency and friendliness of his Hong Kong team. “I will remember our suppers in Tsui Wah restaurant on Wellington Street the most for sure,” he says. Long also remembers how he was asked to hide an engagement ring in a dessert so the guest could propose to his girlfriend.

What’s left of it?

Lettenbichler says many of the returning guests and regulars are booking up tables and rooms while they still can. He reveals that one guest has asked for the number plate on the door of the room he always checks into. Property developer Lai Sun Group later decided to hold an auction after Lunar New Year, to sell around 250 different items from the hotel. “This won’t be any kind of garage sale, that’s for sure,” he says.