A peek at CK Asset’s plan to turn a hotel into apartments for 7,500 people, with 54 units on every floor sharing 10 lifts

The hotel that CK Asset Holdings will convert into a dense housing estate would provide homes to 7,500 people in the New Territories by as early as 2022, according to consultants hired by the company.

The redevelopment of the 1,100-room Harbour Plaza Resort City hotel in Tin Shui Wai into two residential towers with 5,000 flats would cater to three times the number of people than the hotel could. But the expected population increase, said traffic advisers of the project CTA Consultants, would not create congestion in the neighbourhood because nearly one thousand car parking spaces will be added.

“Road capacity impact caused by the proposed development is not significant, and limited traffic impact will be induced,” it said in the supporting document submitted to the Hong Kong’s town planning board for the redevelopment.

Congested roads in the district is not the only sore point among observers. Another is the inadequacy of amenities such as lifts for the two 53-storey towers. One tower will have 11 lifts and the other 10, based on the consultants’ floor plans.

With as many as 54 units squeezed onto one floor, this means one lift will serve five households. In contrast, residential blocks at Kingswood Villa, which CK Asset built 24 years ago in the same district, are fitted with three lifts to cater to eight units on each floor.

“That is a bit inconvenient, but it is unlikely that each unit will have many occupants given the average size of the flats, and the number of lifts should be enough if they are high-speed ones,” said Vincent Cheung, a property surveyor.

Average unit size is expected to be 27.9 square metres (300.3 square feet), or 50 per cent larger than the so-called nano flats.

CK Asset, the flagship company of retired tycoon Li Ka-shing, submitted the application to turn the existing 19-year-old hotel into a residential estate to the town planning board on December 31, 2018, and is now awaiting for approval from the authorities.