progress report Pak Sha Wan boutique hotel Planning permission was granted in 2011 for a 40-room boutique hotel close to the Pak Sha Wan pier. Work is still in its early stages. In its January digest, the Buildings Department acknowledged it had received notification of work commencing on the general building and superstructure of this three-storey hotel. According to the notification the application came from a company called Colhi Investments. However, our attempts to track down the company turned up no results. Pak Kong golf course and Tai Po Tsai News that a golf course was under construction above Tai Chung Hau Road has been greeted with excitement by golf lovers. A crane moved on to the site behind KK Horticulture more than a year ago. In October the company behind the project, Hip Seng Construction, was reborn as New World Construction Company, “a wholly-owned subsidiary of NWS Holdings Limited, the infrastructure and service flagship of New World Development Company Limited”. The same company is also behind the residential development near the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology at Tai Po Tsai, Clearwater Bay – and, of course, the renovation of the Beach Resort Hotel.
The Beach Resort was sold in February for $190m.
The last guests checked out 12 years ago and since then the hotel has changed hands three times When asked about the golf course and the Tai Po Tsai development, a New World Development spokeswoman said only that further information would be provided “in due course”. But, inevitably, not now.
The road well travelled Nicknamed the “highway to hell”, Hiram’s Highway could hold the key to whether Sai Kung can cope with this expansion. The government’s Hiram’s Highway Improvement project is in two stages, only the first of which has been approved. Stage 1 includes widening the top section near the junction with Clearwater Bay Road, improving access to Ho Chung and building a dual carriageway outside Marina Cove (as far as Pak Wei, near the Hing Keng Shek turnoff). Stage 2, which has not been approved, proposes a dual carriageway from Pak Wei to the roundabout near Sha Ha beach. Friends of Sai Kung has been vocal in its objections to the plan. A spokesperson said it was not against the “sensible” widening of the upper section and improving access to Ho Chung. However, the group believed the planned dual carriageways would cause disruption, environmental damage and inconvenience pedestrians. Instead it urged planners to create more laybys for buses, access lanes at junctions, parkand-ride schemes and to pedestrianise the town centre at weekends and holidays. With a lack of consensus on the way forward, it is likely to be years before the journey to Sai Kung gets any smoother.
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