The CollectorPublic land for private profit? New ‘art and design district’ next to Hong Kong harbour takes some liberties
Developer of 66-storey Victoria Dockside creates cultural district on Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront, and plans for it include adjacent public garden, previously an unlovely space, which it has paid to beautify
Is Salisbury Garden part of Victoria Dockside, New World Development’s (NWD) imposing commercial development on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront?
Officially, both the developer and the government have answered a firm no. But the reality may be more nuanced, as is often the case where public space abuts private property developments in Hong Kong.
Salisbury Garden is the bucolic name for the urban square in between the Hong Kong Museum of Art and what used to be the New World Centre, the sprawling, unremittingly brown, mixed-use commercial property built in the late 1970s on the site of the former Holt’s Wharf. The garden was one of those uninspiring public spaces managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), made particularly uninviting by the constant stream of traffic along Salisbury Road.
Then, in 2013, NWD started the HK$20 billion redevelopment of the New World Centre. Its flagship harbourfront property has now been turned into a 66-storey hotel-cum-offices tower block called K11 Atelier, with a shopping centre, serviced apartments and a rumoured 100,000 sq ft Chow Tai Fook (CTF) private museum attached. Some of the offices are already occupied and a Rosewood hotel will open this year. The whole development has been renamed Victoria Dockside.