A settlement on the Taipei New Horizon complex can be reached, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday, adding that the power of the Taipei City Government should not be ignored.
“At the very beginning [of negotiations], I said that the contract terms were ‘unreasonable,’ not ‘illegal,’” Ko said, adding that the city would use “moral persuasion” to urge concessions to address the site’s “poor public image.”
“The task we face is how to integrate good people to do good things,” he said, adding that both Fubon Financial Holding Co, which owns the building’s management firm, and Eslite, one of the largest leaseholders, have reasonably good reputations.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
The Taipei Department of Cultural Affairs last week announced fines against New Horizon for contract violations after a breakdown of negotiations over the building’s tenants.
The city maintains that the rental of office space to Taiwan Mobile Co breaches terms requiring at least 65 percent of building space be allocated to cultural and creative companies and groups.
Ko said that finding funds for a buyout of New Horizon would not be a problem, because the building could be resold quickly to a third party.
He expressed confidence that a damaging legal fight over the building would be avoided, citing Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, which says it is better to balk at an enemy’s plans or prevent the junction of its forces, rather than attack its armies or cities.
A legal battle would be the last choice for both sides, Ko said.
Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Ni Chung-hwa (倪重華) yesterday said in a radio interview that he felt “resigned” and “sorry” that the city had begun fining New Horizon, adding that he was under pressure to move negotiations forward.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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