Jockey Club to run historic Central site
Selection panel fails to find suitable arts venue operator and says club - which is financing HK$1.8b police station revamp - should do it
The Jockey Club will take on the operation of the Old Central Police Station Compound as a heritage and contemporary art venue after failing to choose a winner from three cultural groups bidding to use the monument.
The club, which is financing the HK$1.8 billion restoration of the site's 16 buildings under a 2008 deal with the government, said yesterday that its selection panel "could not identify an integrated operator" and had recommended that the club take up the operation itself.
It did not name the bidders. But the sole group that entered the final stage of tendering is understood to be Arts in Heritage Research, co-founded by Adrian Cheng Chi-kong, general manager of property giant New World Development, and art collector Calvin Hui Kim-lung.
Its representatives were interviewed by the 19-member panel chaired by Executive Council member Bernard Chan last month. Cheng and Hui declined to comment to the South China Morning Post yesterday.
Two competitors - the Hong Kong Arts Centre and the Asia Art Archive - are understood to have been ruled out earlier for failing to meet a technical requirement.
"The selection committee [assessed] the strategies and plans for the heritage programming, strategies and plans for contemporary art programming, financial capacity, business viability and financial plans for the proposed programmes, and management capability and governance," Chan said.
Another panel is now in the process of selecting 10 food and beverage operators for the site.