OVDAN
SCALE OF GROUND FLOOR PLAN
FU HOUSE
OF
CANTON
BUILDING
FRENCH
DANK
BUILDING
CENTRAL
SLOCK
PLAN
SCALE
RULETING
HOUSE
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[
-
STREET
BANONG
HALL
CASH DEPT
PUBLIC
SPACE
OFFICE
UFT LOBET
LEFTE
LIFT LOBBY
STORE
LOBBY
SUB-
AGER MANAGER
OPEN YARD
COVERED
SPACE
be naול
COMPRADORE
OFFICE
CURRENT
ACCOUNTS
WORKING SPACE
WAITING SPACE
VESTIBULE
MANAGER
KANG ENTRANCE
QUEEN'S
ROAD
CENTRAL
(Above) Site plan and plan of the ground floor
banking hull.
(Right) Typical office floor. These plans
show the new building on the right
and how it formsla unit with
Holland House on the left.
OFF
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CORRIDO
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OFFICE
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TYPISTS
SUB- MANAGER
LAV
LIFT LOBBY
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OPEN AREA
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OFFICE SPACE
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basement storage at a cost of a lit- tle more than $7,500,000. In accor- dance with the established policy of
the Company, the rent charged for this accommodation is reasonable by current standards, yet the building is earning a satisfactory and sound re- turn on the capital invested.
It was possible to find room for 99 new tenants in this building, but this represented only a small fraction of the number on the Company's waiting list; hundreds had to be disappointed. This situation, al- though most unsatisfactory from the prospective tenants' point of view. encouraged the Directors to proceed with the redevelopment of No. 7, Queen's Road, Central (known as the Mercantile Bank Building). Work on the site began in August 1952, and the building was completed towards the end of last year. Although this project added a further 73,000 square feet of accommodation to the Com- pany's holdings, it has only gone small way towards meeting the pre- sent demand.
a
The original building standing on No. 7, Queen's Road, Central, was completed by the German Bank shortly before the 1914-18 War, and purchased by the Company during that period.
The new building represents the maximum development permitted under the local Building Regulations. The final cost of the redevelopment was about $3,850,000.
The next stage in the redevelop- ment of the Company's older proper- ties will be the construction of the second portion of Alexandra House by the redevelopment of the sites of Royal Building and Chung Tin Build- ing. thereby making the fullest economic use of the three sites on which the completed Alexandra House will stand. The situation of this new building, in the heart of the most attractive business area of the city, gives ample assurance that it will remain fully occupied even If other less well-placed properties should begin to lose tenants as the result of any temporary business re- cession. Demolition work on the old buildings was commenced early in the year after the new building at No. 7. Queen's Road, Central was completed.
an early return to the more healthy of the Landlord and Tenant Ordin- competitive letting and to the re ance. The difference between the moval of the present inequitable dis- present rent of the controlled pre- parity between the rents payable by mises and a very reasonable compro- tenants of controlled premises and mise figure, still substantially below their less fortunate neighbours in the rents charged in new buildings. uncontrolled buildings. The total would be between $2,000,000 and amount of accommodation in the $3,000,000 per annum. Company's Central District buildings.
which comprise by far the greater The first portion of the new Alex- part of its property, is about 898.000 andra House was completed in June square feet of which nearly 478,000 1952, providing some 116,000 square square feet remain under the control feet of premises for shops, offices and
12
The decision to proceed with the construction of the second section of Alexandra House, so far the largest of the series of redevelopment works undertaken by the Company in the Central District since the completion of Gloucester Building in 1932, was taken in full confidence that this move was sound and in the interests of both the Company and
the Colony's business community. The Company's present waiting list applicants for business premises is already far in excess of the commodation which will be available in this building.
of
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