Tower may replace Hong Kong shopping mall to meet demand for Grade A offices

A 50-storey office and hotel tower could be built on the site of the low-rise Queensway Plaza shopping mall under a government proposal intended to offer more Grade A office space near the city's prime business district.

The plan would also take advantage of the site's location above Admiralty MTR station, a transport hub that will become even more vital when the new South Island Line and Sha Tin-Central Link open in 2016 and 2020, respectively, the Planning Department says.

Property experts said the government-owned mall was in an area with high demand from office tenants.

The plans are revealed in a paper to the Town Planning Board, which will discuss the matter today. The department suggests turning a 6,220sqm site into a high-rise tower, with offices and a hotel above seven storeys of dining and shopping space. The total floor area of the development would be 93,300sqm.

The development would also cover Admiralty Garden, a small public open area. But new open space would be provided, including a landscape garden that would be connected to existing rooftop open space to form a "green link" to nearby Harcourt Garden and Chater Garden.

The new office space there "will help meet the traditionally strong demand in the Central/ Admiralty area", the department said. It cited a vacancy rate for Grade A offices of 6.2 per cent in the district, lower than the figures of 6.7 per cent for Hong Kong Island and 7.2 per cent citywide.