Exclusive | Conversion of Hong Kong police station to arts centre busts budget
Hong Kong Jockey Club expects to spend ‘about double’ the initial HK$1.8 billion budgeted for creating Tai Kwun arts centre at former Central Police Station compound, a project hit by delays following a building’s collapse
The Hong Kong Jockey Club expects to spend about double its original budget on the revitalisation of the Central Police Station compound, the Post has learned.
The Jockey Club, which has underwritten and managed the transformation of the 150-year-old former police station and prison compound, estimated the project would cost HK$1.8 billion (US$230 million) when work began in 2011 – a figure it has not revised until now despite heavy delays to the project.
“The total project development and capital cost is about double our initial estimate. The project [is] not completed yet and we do not have an exact cost figure to provide at this point,” the club said in an emailed statement in response to the Post’s questions.
The Post’s own calculations show the club’s charities trust had spent around HK$3.4 billion by the end of March.
The club has the monopoly on horse racing and sports betting in a city that likes a flutter, and has often been dubbed “Hong Kong’s ATM” since, as a non-profit, it has to donate all its surplus.
The collapse required a thorough investigation into the safety of the remaining structures. The cluster, which includes two new units housing an auditorium and contemporary art galleries designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron, will have a partial opening on May 25.
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Lawmaker Claudia Mo Man-ching, who sits on the Legislative Council subcommittee monitoring the West Kowloon Cultural District, said the cost overrun at the former police station was “very much a cause for concern”.
“The fact that the Jockey Club can get its Central Police Station projection so wrong could mean that the Palace Museum will cost a lot more than it thinks,” she said.
The Jockey Club said its donation to the Palace Museum project was capped at HK$3.5 billion, which means the government will have to find alternative funding to cover the extra.
