Lane Crawford site may fetch $2b
Wheelock & Co's Lane Crawford House in Queen's Road Central has stirred frenzied buying interest, with local developers and foreign investment funds bidding aggressively for a shot at what could be the most expensive en-bloc property in Central in almost a decade.
Market sources say Henderson Land Development and Australia-based Macquarie Group are just two of the known potential buyers for the 24-storey office-retail tower. Others lining up for a pop included investors from Singapore, Britain and the Middle East, the sources said.
'Everyone is talking about well over the $2 billion bracket in their offers. The market is likely to see something quite substantial from this sale,' said one market source.
It is rumoured that Henderson Land has offered as much as $2.4 billion to secure the 28-year-old building which has a site area of 12,286 square feet and a gross floor area of 195,500 sq ft.
Should it fetch more than $2 billion, it would rank second only to the $3.64 billion sale of the Entertainment Building at 30 Queen's Road Central in November 1996.
One source said Wheelock had not yet shortlisted buyers who would then be invited to submit a formal offer before the private tender closes on September 12.
The developer was not keen to close the tender early unless it received an enormously high offer, one source said.
Both Wheelock and CB Richard Ellis - sole property agent for the sale - declined to comment on the tender yesterday and Henderson and Macquarie were not available.
Property consultants said the positive response for Lane Crawford House was widely anticipated in the face of the tight supply in Hong Kong's core commercial district where rents have been soaring.
'The building is located at the prime area of the core Central district where en-bloc commercial property is in short supply,' said DTZ Debenham Tie Leung research director Alva To Yu-hung.
Built in 1977, the building once housed Lane Crawford's flagship store.
From the basement to the sixth floor the building comprises retail space with a gross floor area of 89,500 sq ft. The rest of the building is office space.