A foreign consortium led by a Hong Kong media tycoon won the “Taipei Twin Towers” development project, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems announced yesterday after five unsuccessful attempts to find a developer.
The consortium of Hong Kong-based Nan Hai Development Ltd (南海發展) and Malaysian property developer Malton Berhad was the most favored applicant for the project next to Taipei Railway Station, the department said, adding that the two sides are to ink a contract in March.
The team offered more generous terms that would allow landlords to keep more floor space and charge higher rents when construction of the mixed-use complex is completed in 2025, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems
It is the sixth auction attempt for the project, which has been embroiled in bribery scandals for the past 20 years.
The consortium is competing against a local group comprised of computer maker Clevo Co (藍天電腦) and affiliate property developer Hongwell Group (宏匯集團).
The local team could take over if Nan Hai pulls out, the department said.
Nan Hai is to spend NT$60 billion (US$1.95 billion) on the project that would “wow” the region after its completion, chairman Yu Pun-hoi (于品海) told a news conference in Taipei earlier this month.
The team aims to develop two towers — one 65 stories tall and the other 53 stories tall — that would house retail stores on the lower floors, offices on the middle floors and hotel rooms on the upper floors, said Yu, who also chairs Nan Hai Corp (南海控股).
Nan Hai Holding Co (南海金控) is a listed firm in Hong Kong primarily engaged with businesses in China, Hong Kong, North America, Europe and Australia in the culture and media sectors, property development and IT application services.
“Taipei has not seen any eye-catching buildings for a while — not since the construction of Taipei 101 — and we aim to rescue the city from the architectural doldrums with the Taipei City One project,” Yu said.
The project is a real-estate development opportunity and a venue for launching an “online-offline merger” business model in Taiwan — persuading consumers within a physical business to make digital engagement purchases, Yu said.
The complex would add more than 60,000 ping (198,347m2) of commercial space to the area, Yu said, adding that he is not worried about a supply glut, because there are no competitors of a similar scale in the vicinity.
Real-estate prices in Taipei are relatively affordable, compared with that in other international Asian cities, suggesting ample room to improve on the team’s investment, he said.
The Clevo-Hongwell team told local media it would continue to invest in Taiwan, despite losing the contract.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS