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Amy Nip

The West Kowloon arts hub is appointing a chief operating officer to develop its commercial and residential space.
"The idea is to assist on commercial deals and establish the retail and residential side of the project," Michael Lynch, chief executive officer of the West Kowloon Cultural District, said in a Redefining Hong Kong panel discussion hosted by the South China Morning  Post.
Cultural facilities will take up 35 to 40 per cent of the gross floor area of the development.
Developers will build most of the flats, but the authority is planning a hotel for visiting artists, rehearsal facilities and creative space for young people and artists.
The government gave the arts hub authority an initial endowment of HK$21.6 billion in 2008. With investment returns, the amount is now HK$24 billion.
Lynch said HK$1.3 billion had been spent over the past six years.
A "ballpark estimate" given to lawmakers for the design and construction of all facilities is HK$47 billion. Lynch said this was not a figure the authority was using, but he did not provide a new estimate.
Although 15 performance venues were planned back in 2007, only five have been confirmed. Lynch denied the project had been scaled down, but the fate of the others would depend on private sponsors.
Other speakers at the conference said the authority should put the emphasis on software - nurturing talent, educating the audiences, building a good museum collection and planning content.
The executive director of the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Tisa Ho, said she was not so interested in how many seats there would be or how much the buildings would cost.
What was important was "what it is going to do?" she said.


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SCMP Experiences

West Kowloon arts hub to name COO to steer commercial development

SCMP senior reporter Vivienne Chow, West Kowloon Cultural District Authority chief executive officer Michael Lynch, Hong Kong Arts Festival executive director Tisa Ho, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts director Adrian Walter, Hong Kong designer and artist Stanley Wong, and Foster + Partners partner Colin Ward, attend a seminar of "West Kowloon Cultural District - More hype than hub?", at the JW Marriott Hotel in Admiralty. Photo: Dickson Lee


West Kowloon Cultural District should be about arts, not money, experts say

Panellists (from left) Stanley Wong, Tisa Ho, Michael Lynch, Colin Ward and Adrian Walter at the seminar on the West Kowloon Cultural District. Photo: Dickson Lee

A model of the Xiqu Centre for Chinese opera. Photo: Sam Tsang

An artist's impression of the waterfront arts pavilion.

News

Hong Kong

Chief operating officer to focus on establishing shops and homes in the new cultural district


The West Kowloon arts hub is appointing a chief operating officer to develop its commercial and residential space. Cultural facilities will take up 35 to 40 per cent of the gross floor area of the development.
