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Old industrial buildings revitalisation was proposed in 2009-2010 Policy address of Hong Kong. It aims to redevelop those unused and affordable industrial buildings to house new business, especially for the six pillar industries[1]. The project has three main measures. The first one is to lower those ownership application threshold from 90% to 80%. The second one is to give owners options to pay for the assessed land premium by changing the lease of instalments at a fixed rate of 2% over five years, while the third one is the tailor-made lease modification which provides land premium based on their most suitable use. The government keeps providing art space at those favorable industrial premises. During these three years, 13 applications for redevelopment and 49 for wholesale conversion have been approved and it has supplied about 680000 square meters of non-industrial uses area.[2]
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Industrial buildings located broadly in different areas in Hong Kong and the types of business found had a great variety. The following is some examples of clustering[3]:
Kwun Tong: movie post-production offices and music studios
San Po Kong: performing arts stages
Chai Wan: photo studios
Fotan: Visual arts studios
Other types of business includes sports (e.g. skiing, snowboard, baseball, softball and football facilities), creative arts workshops (e.g. leather workshop, painting, sculpture studio, music studio), restaurants and farms (e.g. aquatic farm and hydroponics plantation).[4]
Providing land for various land uses
The land resource in Hong Kong is scarce, but various developments are needed for giving an impetus to the continuous growth of city. Revitalizing abandoned industrial buildings for different land uses does not create much land pressure by making use of the existing land from old industrial buildings. The revitalized buildings can be turned into offices, residential areas, hotels and so on, thus benefitting different industries in Hong Kong, especially the cultural and creative industries. It is relatively not well-developed in Hong Kong because of lack of space and opportunities for growth. The buildings which were revitalized can be a suitable place for artists to continue or start their business. The Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre(JCCAC) is a piece of evidence. It was a factory estate in Shek Kip Mei, which has been abandoned during the 1990s. It has been converted into arts centre for cultural development. Over 100 artists and arts groups are working inside.[5][6]
Minimising construction waste and costs
Revitalizing the old industrial buildings can make use of the existing old buildings and avoid pulling them down. This minimizes the amount of construction waste and alleviates the problem of land pollution in Hong Kong, which is caused by the large amount of waste. At the same time, as buildings are not required to be destroyed, people can start their business directly inside the buildings without the need of waiting for a long period of time. Thus, the costs can be greatly reduced.[7]
Increase in rental fee
With the Policy of Revitalizing industrial buildings, it boosted the rental fee in factories. The rateable value had increased 2% in 2012 and 7% in 2013.[8] With reference to the survey in 2010 by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, over 60% of industrial buildings users faced the problem of rental increase.[9] The average increase was 14%. According to the recent survey proposed by HKADC, among 800 arts groups housing in industrial buildings, 61.5% stated that they were facing an increase in rental fee. This poses a financial threat to arts groups who have unstable income, because the rental fee, including cost of installing air conditioners and other equipments, accounts for the largest part of their expenses. It results in some arts groups or arts practitioners giving up and relocating from the old industrial buildings.
Limitations on current Land Use Policy
In accordance with the Hong Kong Development Bureau, ‘from town planning perspective, various uses of cultural and creative industries (e.g. information technology, design and media production office, audio-visual recording studio, etc.) are allowed in these two zonings.’[10] Nonetheless, Mr Leung Po Shan, the spokesperson of the Factory Artists Concern Group(FAC) stated that drama groups were not allowed to rent in factories. Some actors or actresses had to pretend to be porters whenever there were Government officials patrolling. These loopholes in the current Land Use Policy discouraged artists and they were concerned how these could be addressed.
Category:Hong Kong Category:Policy Category:Revitalization Category:Urban, rural, and regional economics
