KWUN TONG
At 4pm on a weekday afternoon apm Millennium City mall’s 11 floors are bustling with action. It’s no clogged up Saturday, but then no TVB stars are programmed to appear – an unusual break in a normally packed schedule – and no World Cup matches play on the 150 LCD screens. apm scored record highs with the summer’s soccer action, when over 460,000 football fans flocked to the mall. But still, even on an average afternoon, laughing schoolgirls mill around, mothers carrying toddlers stop for a gossip and office workers taking afternoon tea sit among scattered papers.

What’s more unusual about apm is its location – slap-bang in Kwun Tong, way out on the MTR green line nestled between Lam Tin and Ngau Tau Kok. So what’s a nice mall like this doing in an town grey with industrial buildings?

By 2012, Kwun Tong will be one of the world’s most densely populated areas with over 600,000 people crammed into a tiny 11 square kilometres. “In this area is a hidden potential,” says Maureen Fung of property developers Sun Hung Kai, who envisages Kowloon East as an expansive commercial and retail hub.

apm is characterised by wide-open spaces, large seating areas, open-fronted stores and stage and TV acts, creating a laid-back home away from home atmosphere aimed at a younger crowd in desperate need of space. “People told us, we are waiting for a large shopping centre for years… it’s like a second home,” says Fung, of her customers – 80 percent of whom are young woman who come ‘to see and be seen’. The mall, the first in Hong Kong to introduce late-night shopping until 12pm, the first to include toilet cubicles with TVs, and the largest to target young people (under age 39) has set several precedents.

Competitors are chomping at the bit to get a slice of Kowloon’s retail pie. Yards away from the space-age mall, the Urban Renewal Authority, an initiative set on rejuvenating Hong Kong’s run-down areas, is planning to transform Kwun Tong’s city centre into a bustling metropolis. Covering 5.3 hectares and costing almost $30 billion, it is the largest single redevelopment tackled by the URA, and prime real estate for those in the business, retail and leisure sectors.

MEGABOX
In Kowloon Bay, just two stops from Kwun Tong, a brand-new building is set to change the face of Hong Kong retail. MegaBox is an almighty red square complex that, by 2007, will house 19 floors of retailers, an international-sized ice rink, over 30 restaurants and the new mall must-have; express elevators. Resembling a giant-sized shoebox, its shell is already making a bright red splash against the bay’s barren vista, and developers say they are having no trouble attracting clients to fill its colossal space, flanked by two new office towers. Hang Seng bank has closed a deal to lease one of the towers – 260,000 square feet of prime real estate – after giving up premises in Central’s Des Voeux Road. “With the objective of providing a modern, efficient and comfortable working environment for our staff, we decided to lease a tower at Enterprise Square 5, after taking into account the size, location, quality and costs,” said Raymond Or, Hang Seng’s vice-president recently.

As with Sun Hung Kai at Kwun Tong, the company responsible for MegaBox has a long investment history in Kowloon Bay. Kerry Properties began planning developments 12 years ago, attracted by newer residential blocks (the oldest are less than 30 years old) housing large populations and, aided by proposals to develop Kai Tak airport, East Kowloon’s progression into a transportation hub. The business heads behind Enterprise Squares 1 – 3; gleaming glass-fronted towers that will sit adjacent to the mall (Enterprise 5), predict a sparkling new harbour-front destination within just a few years. Hang Seng’s leasing has only given the company a further boost in confidence. “The signing of this lease agreement….re-affirms our efforts in this emerging business zone,” said Kerry Property chairman, Ang Keng Lam.

In both cases the developers say that retail projects target Kowloon’s residents primarily, though they expect visitors from all over the territory, especially on weekends. Business is a different matter. It’s hoped that corporate clients might function without needing to visit Hong Kong Island at all.

LANGHAM PLACE HOTEL
Jeffrey van Vorsselen, general manager of Mong Kok’s first five-star hotel, remembers overwhelming resistance to Great Eagle Group planting Langham hotel, shopping centre and office blocks just a heartbeat away from the throng of Ladies’ Market. He takes a sip of water, and regales, “I heard it from everybody – ‘You must be crazy to build a place in Mong Kok,’’’ he says shaking his head, laughing. But today, the modern airy hotel, what the Langham team likes to refer to as an “oasis in Mong Kok”, is rated second only to the Ritz-Carlton on travel site tripadvisor and comes with great reviews. “One of my favourites, a really beautiful place with wonderful rooms and a great location in Mongkok. Great for business in Kowloon as your [sic] right on top of the MTR,” said mjcSING, from Singapore on October 4th, this year.

Certainly today, Langham’s Portal lounge is zen-like, displaying little of Mong Kok’s teeming street life. Hi-tech, wi-fi, with swirling modern artworks and waitresses in lime green qipaos, it’s all calm tranquility. Western guests often request tables on the cafe’s far side, where large windows overlook jostling local activity all the way to Kowloon City. Undisturbed by high-rises, forbidden by outdated height restrictions imposed in the days of Kai Tak’s perilous plane landings, it’s a unique viewpoint. Vorsselen, a lively spirit, who lives as well as works in the district, is clearly enthused, ‘‘New Mong Kok versus old Mong Kok – that’s really our enigma,” he says.

It’s not just the hotel pulling excitement; Langham’s offices are beginning to bulge too. Multi-national HSBC is one of the corporate giants attracted by greater land area at competitive prices. Though Vorsselen doesn’t think the company will depart Hong Kong Island en masse, with Mong Kok spread-eagled over KCR, MTR and PLB links, it is fair to suggest that whole sectors might be able to complete a day’s work without leaving Kowloon.

But a magnificent sliver of modernity will significantly mar Langham’s unparalleled views of ‘old Hong Kong’ by 2010, when Sun Hung Kai joins forces with MTR to unveil ICC.

ICC
It’s just a sapling at the moment; a spindly and innocuous mid-rise surrounded by cranes, still dwarfed by the trunks of residential towers adjacent to the harbour in West Kowloon. But within five years, this sapling would have grown into a behemoth, topping even the mammoth IFC2 to become Hong Kong’s tallest building: 2.5 million square feet, 118 floors, 484 metres, straight up.

This enormous erection has a lot going for it. It’s in the heart of Kowloon, easily accessible to Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok, and just 20 minutes from East Kowloon. It’s a short hop away from the western cross-harbour tunnel and the highway. It has a sea view and a great look at Central’s skyline. It’s directly above Kowloon Station; just a five-minute train ride to Central. And let’s not forget, it’s sitting beside some brand-new high-end residential buildings, home to the gloriously rich. By the time the building is complete in 2010, when the Ritz-Carlton finally moves into the top 15 floors, the ICC will stand opposite IFC2 across the harbour, the two giants acting as gleaming beacons for an ocean entry into Hong Kong.

“It’s creating a focus, an icon,” says Maggie Chu. It’s not about to take over Central anytime soon – “Central is Central,” says Chu – but it’s already attracting the big names in banking, investment banking, finance, logistics, and other important international companies. Picture this, she says: in five years’ time, businessmen coming into Hong Kong can fly into Chek Lap Airport on Lantau Island. From there they can get on the Airport Express and be at Kowloon Station within 20 minutes. From there they can check into the Ritz-Carlton or nearby boutique W Hotel. The same day they can visit their suppliers in Kowloon or do business in company offices in the ICC. At night they can perhaps visit a nearby restaurant, take in some of the nightlife, or browse the 1 million square foot Union Square shopping mall (also currently under development). Later they might choose to get on the KCR and take the 30-minute trip to Shenzhen or Guangzhou, where they can visit their factories. And then it’s an easy trip back, another comfortable night at a five-star hotel, and back on the Airport Express to catch a flight home. They needn’t even set foot on Hong Kong Island.

If the proposed West Kowloon Cultural District, an extravagant entertainment centre, goes ahead – it is still in the consultation process – then the ICC’s cachet will grow that much more. The arts, culture and entertainment brought in by the $25 billion development would provide just another reason to stay away from the Island.

KOWLOON LAN KWAI FONG
“Kowloon has always been for the sins,” announces Robert Wang with a sly smile and a glint in his eye. Mong Kok, Tsim Sha Tsui, hotels, tourists, Suzie Wong – all have had a part to play in establishing Kowloon as the traditional destination place for nighttime naughtiness. And a new development in Minden Avenue, Tsim Sha Tsui, could be about restore it to its former glory.

Wang, the smart and excitable head of the Minden Avenue Owners Association, sits forward in his office chair at the Minden Hotel and clicks through a slide show, enthusing about the ‘Kowloon Lan Kwai Fong’. By the end of next year, bars, clubs, and restaurants will line Minden Avenue on both sides. At the end of the street, an 8m x 8m video screen mounted on the podium of Minden House will project sports matches, pop concerts, and images of celebrities cavorting at a swanky club on the floor above. To get around noise restrictions, revellers will listen to audio from the screen on personal headsets as part of a ‘silent disco’. Plans also include screening live broadcasts from other major cities – imagine seeing Madonna in TST as she plays live at New York Times Square (of course, the 12-hour time difference might put paid to that idea...). Wang imagines it as an open-air theatre. “It’s a unique street culture we’re going to develop.”

Both Knutsford Terrace and Ashley Road have tried to claim the name ‘Kowloon Lan Kwai Fong’ but Wang says he registered it as a trademark five years ago, when the Minden Avenue Owners Association first approached the government with its proposal. He’s confident the rejuvenated entertainment district – hemmed in by connections to the MTR, KCR, subway walkways, and the Star Ferry bus station – will be a success. He says it will attract party-goers from the New Territories, tourists, as well as spillover from Lan Kwai Fong looking for a change. The government has already announced plans to pedestrianise the street between 6pm and 2am. As far as Wang is concerned, all signs point to success. “The natural course is Kowloon Lan Kwai Fong. The unnatural course, the artificial course, is still Kowloon Lan Kwai Fong.”

KOWLOON CATCHING UP
Supported by a sophisticated transport system, government initiatives and the long-term visions of entrepreneurial thinkers, many see no reason why Kowloon can’t be up and sprinting with the Island’s frontrunners. Sun Hung Kai’s Fung measures apm’s successes as a blueprint for other sites. With 150 stores waiting to rent space in apm – many of them Hong Kong newcomers – its $26 million annual turnover, and an $80 million shopper flow, she reasons that Kowloon is a proven alternative option for shopping and extending business throughout the territory. The advent of Megabox and the coming of the ICC will spread the economic love to new, but still accessible, corners of Kowloon. Robert Wang agrees, “The centre of gravity is going to split to more areas and all these are supported by a very sophisticated integrated network of our transport system.”

To a certain extent, these new developments could signal the demise of some of Kowloon’s old buildings, old customs, and old commerce – that history and ‘life’ so enjoyed by the Langham Place Hotel’s guests – but Wang remains upbeat. “All these,” he says of the developments, “ are going to enhance the attractiveness of Hong Kong.”