The Ministry of Finance is scheduled to announce details of a land development project in Taipei later this month, which is expected to attract NT$6 billion (US$199.1 million) worth of private investment and boost the national coffers, the ministry’s National Property Administration said in a press release.
The project, which covers a state-owned land of more than 10,000 ping (33,000m2) on Roosevelt Road between Wanlong MRT Station and Jingmei MRT Station, used to house a training institute where civil servants were trained to perform the ministry’s major tasks of tax collection, national treasury functions and national property management.
The National Property Administration said the project would be the first land development project launched by the ministry in cooperation with private companies, following the government’s ban on sales of large-scale properties owned by the state last year.
The project is expected to be developed on a build-operate-transfer model, the press release said. The ministry will allow the winning bidder from the private sector to develop the land by granting it superficies rights for 50 years, it said.
Under the ministry’s preliminary development plan, the winning bidder would be required to build two buildings for the ministry’s use, one of them a dormitory building for the training institute and the other an office building.
The National Property Administration said the two buildings, with a total floor space of 15,600 ping, would cost the bidder about NT$2.1 billion.
The winning bidder would be allowed to develop the rest of the land for both commercial and residential use, the ministry said, adding that the land for commercial use is appropriate for a large shopping center based on the preliminary evaluation by a consultant company.
“This case may not only create private investment, but also help the government save money and raise income,” Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德) told a press conference in Kinmen on Friday.
Apart from the proposed NT$6 billion in private investment, the planned project is likely to produce a one-time fee for the superficies rights and a rental income of NT$3.4 billion over the 50-year lease, Lee said, adding that the project would create job opportunities.
Furthermore, the ministry could keep the ownership of the land under this kind of cooperation and reclaim the land after the 50-year contract expires, he added.
The project would be the first step in revitalizing state-owned lands, indicating that the model of granting superficies rights might be widely used in the future, the National Property Administration said.
“Once the construction of the project is completed, various agencies under the ministry will move to the new building, leaving their old sites available for future redevelopment to create more investment opportunities and continuous treasury income,” it said.
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