Hong Kong real estate owners seek alternative uses for retail complexes and hotels amid tourism slump
- The owners of Park Lane Shopper’s Boulevard in Tsim Sha Tsui want to turn the 50-store complex into a food and beverage destination
- Sun Hung Kai Properties secures Town Planning Board nod to convert its Royal View Hotel in Tsuen Wan West into a residential project
The owners of Park Lane Shopper’s Boulevard on Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, one of Hong Kong’s four major tourist belts, last Friday submitted an application to turn the 300-metre long, 50-store complex along the boulevard into a food and beverage destination.
The proposed change will replace the retail stores with cafeterias, coffee shops and tea houses on the ground and first floors of the landmark shopping destination for tourists and locals since 1986.
The retailers are seeking a change “as a market response to the structural shifts in the socio-economic context of Tsim Sha Tsui and wider Hong Kong in recent years, especially amid a decline in tourists, which has resulted in store closures and affected the urban dynamics in the area”, the Incorporated Owners Park Lane Shopper’s Boulevard, which represents the landlords, said in their application to the Town Planning Board (TPB).
The proposed uses are “critical for adding flexibility and resilience to the local economy in responding to the recent changes”, the application said.
