West Kowloon

West Kowloon is a part of Kowloon, Hong Kong situated within the Yau Tsim Mong District. It is bounded by Canton Road to the east, Victoria Harbour to the west and the south, and Jordan Road to the north. Further to the north, the area extends to Tai Kok Tsui to the west of the West Kowloon Expressway. Olympic and Kowloon stations are within the area.

It is principally a stretch of land reclaimed and which has been opened to development in the late 20th century. It has been zoned for mixed commercial, residential and leisure development, and was almost doubled in size with a large reclamation scheme as part of the Airport Core Programme.

Notable structures

Existing

* West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade
* West Kowloon Corridor - a bypass connecting Lai Chi Kok Road with the Gascoigne Road Flyover in Yau Ma Tei
* Western Harbour Crossing - Hong Kong's third harbour crossing, the Kowloon portal of which is located within West Kowloon

Under construction

* West Kowloon Station of MTR
* International Commerce Centre, the soon to be tallest building in Hong Kong

Under planning

* West Kowloon Cultural District - proposal for a leisure and cultural district

Projects

Realised or in progress

Commercial projects include International Commerce Centre, a 484 m (1,588 ft.) skyscraper ("under construction") which is part of the Union Square project.

Residential projects which have been realised in the sector include The Waterfront ("2000"), Sorrento ("2003"), the tallest residential building in Hong Kong, The Harbourside ("2003"), and The Arch ("2005"), The Cullinan ("2008"). The above all sit atop Kowloon MTR station, a station on the Tung Chung line and Airport Express line. Recently, the shopping-mall "elements" started operating on October 1st, 2007.

Plots auctioned

In August 2005, two neighboring sites near Central Park and Park Avenue were triggered for auction, and were subsequently acquired by a joint venture of Sino Land, Chinese Estates Holdings and Nan Fung Development [Raymond Wang and Danny Chung, [http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=48&art_id=43596&sid=13386356&con_type=1&d_str=20070504&sear_year=2007 West Kowloon braces for battle] , The Standard, May 4, 2007] .

In May 2007, a site bounded by Hoi Wang Road, Yan Cheung Road and Yau Cheung Road was won by a consortium comprising Sino Land, Chinese Estates Holdings, K Wah International and Nan Fung Development, for a bid of HK$4 billion [Raymond Wang and Danny Chung, [http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=2&art_id=44036&sid=13509838&con_type=3&d_str=20070509&sear_year=2007 Low-end $4b win] , The Standard, May 9, 2007] . Following the successful auction of the site, some legislators called for a law to stop developers from constructing tall buildings which maximise good views at the expense of air flow in densely populated areas, but the bid failed [Olga Wong, "Call for law against 'wall effect' fails", South China Morning Post, May 10, 2007] .

References