Invitation to Tender for Johnston Road Project

The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) invited a total of 28 property developers to tender for the joint development of the Johnston Road project in Wan Chai today (Wednesday). The developers have been selected among those who responded to an expression of interest exercise for the project earlier.

The project site occupies a prominent location of about 21,200 square feet in Johnston Road at its junction with Ship Street. It is the first site successfully cleared since the URA commenced acquisition work in March 2002 for a series of redevelopment projects.

The project is expected to deliver about 190,000 square feet of residential floor area and about 28,000 square feet of commercial retail area upon completion in 2007.

Tenderers are requested to submit both the design proposal for the joint development and the financial offers to the URA.

In particular, the project features the conservation of five pre-war buildings of historic value to Hong Kong. Four of them, fronting Johnston Road, are a row of four-storey, Cantonese terraced-style buildings which are a fast disappearing species in Hong Kong. The remaining one is a four-storey shop-house in Ship Street that is typically reminiscent of Hong Kong's live-and-work arrangement of a family business before the 1960's.

During the expression of interest exercise which closed on March 8, a total of 32 submissions were received from interested parties for the joint development project. An assessment panel under the URA Board decided to invite 28 of them for tender, after taking into consideration their experience and financial strength to undertake the development in accordance with the requirements and criteria set by the Authority.

Tender submissions should be returned to the URA Headquarters at 10/F Low Block, Grand Millennium Plaza, 181 Queen's Road Central, by noon on 12 May 2004.