CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) yesterday said that it would appeal the Taipei City Government’s decision to declare one of its properties in the capital’s Xinyi District (信義) a cultural heritage site, despite the company’s intention to sell the building as part of its headquarters relocation plan.
The building in question is Novel Hall (新舞台), a medium-sized performance center next to CTBC Financial’s former headquarters in a prime real-estate area on Sung Shou Road near Taipei 101 that the company built 17 years ago.
Calling the city’s move “an incursion on private property,” CTBC Financial said in a statement that it is compelled to defend the interests of its shareholders.
Photo: Chiu Shao-wen, Taipei Times
“The owner of the property [Novel Hall] is CTBC Bank (中國信託商業銀行), but the city government’s administrative sanction is far removed from the fundamental principles of the Constitution and has harmed citizens’ property rights,” the statement read.
The bank-focused conglomerate originally planned to sell the theater along with its old office building for about NT$25 billion (US$834.28 million), a move that was expected to further increase its tier-1 capital adequacy ratio.
However, artists and cultural experts, including Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (雲門舞集) founder Lin Hwai-min (林懷民), have called for the theater’s preservation and the city government has said it would not agree to a company request to demolish the building.
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