Urban Razing Authority

Hong Kong's Urban Renewal Authority has come up with a new plan: conserve heritage by ripping down historic buildings in Central and then replacing them with replicas.

It calls the proposal Nostalgia Vibrancy: Bringing Back Old Charms and Streetscape.

Under the plan, three-storey replicas of pre-second world war tenement houses will be built on Graham Street.

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"The redevelopment area is rich in culture and history ... We hope by improving the environment we will increase the historic and cultural value of the community and make it more attractive to tourists."

Like the plastic-looking "Edwardian" Star Ferry pier?

The project will cover just over half a hectare bordered by Cochrane, Gage and Wellington streets. A 140-year-old wet market will be affected, but it is not clear how much of it will be preserved. ... in addition to the replica buildings there will be two residential blocks of 30 and 32 storeys; a 33-storey office tower and a 26-storey hotel on top of two other four-storey podiums. Shops will be housed in the podiums.

Three pre-war buildings on Graham Street will be preserved but a 135-year-old, three-storey building that houses the 80-year-old Wing Woo Ho grocery store will have only its facade on Graham Street preserved as the building is unsafe.

That's how things are done in Hong Kong: developers get rich putting up more high-rises at the expense of the people in the community (to be fair, I understand that some old concrete buildings are indeed too weak for refurbishment and pose a hazard, but I would hope that every effort would be made to keep that option a last resort). Once the new buildings are up, business owners won't be able to afford the exorbitant rents for their shops, and then the historic district will fill up with more 7-11s and skin-whitening stores.

Kwan Moon-chui, who operates a grocery and preserved-food store in the area, said he hoped he could continue to run the shop until he became too old and weak to work anymore.

The 75-year-old shop owner started working in the shop as an apprentice when he was 12.

The store was started by his uncle, who later left the shop to his father when he joined the government.

"Business is not good," Mr Kwan said. "I only earn enough to pay the rent. But I enjoy coming here every day to see the neighbours and the clients. I'm an honest businessman; everyone in the neighbourhood likes me. They keep persuading me not to give up the business.

"If given a choice, I don't know how to close the store. I will have to close it eventually, but not now, not when I'm still able to work.

"How am I supposed to pass my time when I don't have the shop to come to every day?"

He said no one from the authority had talked to him about the redevelopment plan.

It didn't take long for opponents of the proposal to come up with a better suggestion, such as renovation instead of replicas. But developers hate that idea.

There's no money in it.

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