HPW Co Ltd (海霸王企業), which runs seafood chain Hai Pai Wang Restaurants nationwide, yesterday outbid three other rivals to acquire a property on Kunming Street in Taipei City for NT$1.03 billion (US$32.6 million), Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) said in a press statement.
HPW Co also operates a hotel, City Suites (城市商旅), in Taoyuan County.
The property, auctioned by the Central Deposit Insurance Corp (中央存保) for a floor price of NT$822.61 million, sits on a 599.59-ping (1,978.65m²) plot of land and has a total floor space of 6,253.92 ping from its basement to the fourth floor.
That represented a 25.2 percent price premium and a floor-space price of NT$164,700 per ping, or a land price of NT$1.72 million per ping, the realtor said.
Taiwan Realty said the potential for the new owner to turn the property, which is near the busy Ximending business district, into a mid-range hotel, would spell a lucrative return for the property investment.
Its value could rise further if the property was later included in any urban renewal projects, the realtor said.
In other developments, the Contruction and Planning Agency under the Ministry of the Interior is scheduled to auction off 10 plots of land in Tamshui, Taipei County today. The plots cover 26.2 hectares in total.
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