The Taipei City Government yesterday leased one of its most valuable properties in Xinyi District (信義) to Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) for a record royalty of NT$26.8 billion (US$894 million), with a new landmark building expected to rise in the business district in three years.
Bidding for the 5,357 ping (17,709m2) property, which houses the Taipei World Trade Center’s Hall 2, is a key project for the city government to speed up urban renewal and generate revenue.
The starting bid for the property was NT$25 billion and Nan Shan, by paying NT$1.8 billion over the starting price, obtained the leasehold to the property for 50 years.
Nan Shan beat out Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), which bid NT$25.6 billion.
Announcing the result, Department of Finance Commissioner Chiu Da-chan (邱大展) said the city expected the new building to become another landmark alongside Taipei 101, and that both Nan Shan and its competitor Cathay had invited world-renowned design teams to participate in the bidding process.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) thanked the two bidders for their participation and said he expected the project would create stable revenue and more job opportunities, in addition to a more beautiful landscape.
“The project is expected to attract NT$40 billion in private investment and create 9,200 jobs. The city government will also receive a monthly rent of NT$220 million. I think it’s a win-win situation for private investors and city residents,” Hau said at Taipei City Hall.
Nan Shan plans to work with Mitsubishi Estate, architect of the Omotesando in Tokyo, and Jones Lang LaSalle, a former leasing agent for Taipei 101, to construct new buildings with towers of 28 stories and 36 stories.
The company is expected to complete the construction in three years, Chiu said.
The city government plans to sign a contract with the company in the next three months and it would receive half of the royalty, or NT$13.4 billion, upon signing.
The Department of Finance is planning another auction — for the city’s remaining property in Xinyi District on Zhongxiao E Road — next month, Chiu said.
INCURSION: After 13 PLA aircraft flew into Taiwan’s ADIZ, the US Department of State said that China should rather ‘engage in meaningful dialogue’ with Taiwan US President Joe Biden’s administration on Saturday urged China to stop placing military pressure on Taiwan, while calling on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to engage in peaceful dialogue. The statement by the US Department of State was issued after 13 Chinese military aircraft flew into Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Saturday, the highest number observed in a single day this year, the Ministry of National Defense said. The air force scrambled fighter jets to monitor the Chinese aircraft, issuing radio warnings and mobilizing air defense assets until the planes left the ADIZ. The US “notes
‘INCREASED VIGILANCE’: A source of infection has not yet been found for the latest two cases in a hospital cluster, which should serve as a warning, Chen Shih-chung said A total of 2,991 people associated with a COVID-19 cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital have been put under home isolation, after an emergency expanded isolation order was issued on Sunday evening, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Fifteen people have so far tested positive in the cluster infection. The first case in the cluster (case No. 838) was reported on Jan. 12 — a doctor who treated an infected patient who had returned from the US. Contact tracing for the first 13 cases found connections to case No. 838, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who
CHANGE OF GUARD: Hsiao Bi-khim’s attendance at Joe Biden’s inauguration will come as a boost to those in Taiwan who feared that the new US administration would be less friendly than that of Donald Trump to the nation Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) is to attend US President Joe Biden’s swearing-in ceremony at the US Capitol after she was invited by the US Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, a news release issued by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in the US said last night. The news came as a surprise as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been reticent about the matter, while Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members had accused the Democratic Progressive Party administration of hedging its bets on the Republican Party. Asked about when Hsiao received the invitation, the ministry did not
FAMILY UNIT: The CECC warned that the eldest sister of the latest case, who also has COVID-19, visited Taoyuan’s Chungping evening market on Tuesday and Wednesday The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported a domestic case of COVID-19, associated with a recent cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital, and two imported cases. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the latest case (No. 885) is a woman in her 50s, who is the third daughter of case No. 881, a man in his 90s. The woman is the main caregiver of her elderly father, who had been hospitalized earlier this month and was treated by a nurse (case No. 852) from Monday to Thursday last week, he said, adding that