The government will build an office building on the site where the now-defunct Lotus Flower checkpoint was located.
The government launched a public tender in late May for the project’s pile foundation work. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak that was detected on June 18, the government had extended the deadline for bid submissions, which were initially scheduled to end on June 22, to Monday last week.
A total of 18 construction companies submitted their bids, which were unsealed by Public Works Bureau (DSOP) officials on Tuesday last week.
According to a DSOP statement on Tuesday last week, 17 of the 18 bids were accepted, while the office conditionally accepted the remaining one. The statement did not mention what the company will need to do in order for its bids to be finally accepted.
According to the statement, the project in Cotai will be carried out in three phases, namely the building’s pile foundation work, basement and podium, and superstructure.
The building will have 25 storeys plus a three-floor basement. It will be primarily earmarked for offices, other commercial purposes and a car park, the statement said.
According to the statement, the quotations for the project’s pile foundation work proposed by the 18 bidders range from 367 million patacas to 428 million patacas.
The bureau has set a maximum period of 340 working days for the winning bidder to complete the project’s pile foundation work.
According to the statement, the construction periods proposed by the 18 bidders range from 305 to 315 working days.
The statement did not mention when the pile foundation work is expected to get off the ground.
According to the statement, the site where the office building will be located covers about 6,600 square metres. The building will have a gross area of about 103,000 square metres.
The Lotus Flower checkpoint building was demolished after the Macau-Zhuhai joint border checkpoint in Hengqin came into service in August 2020. The area will be used as the Cotai-side station of the ongoing Light Rail Transit (LRT) Cotai-Hengqin section project, which will link the area of the former Lotus Flower checkpoint with the Hengqin checkpoint. The two-station LRT Cotai-Hengqin section project got off the ground last year.
In addition, Tuesday’s statement said, the new office building’s podium will also be used as a platform connecting the LRT Taipa section’s Lotus Checkpoint station and its adjacent Cotai-side station of the future LRT Hengqin section. The platform will make it more convenient for LRT passengers to transfer between the Taipa and Hengqin sections, the statement said.
According to Macau’s official urban master plan, which took effect early this year, the site of the former Lotus Flower checkpoint, alongside its surrounding areas, i.e., the undeveloped plots of land south of The Londoner Macao casino-hotel resort, will be earmarked for the development of commercial complexes based on the transit-orientated development (TOD) model.
In urban planning, transit-orientated development (TOD) is a type of urban development that maximises the amount of residential, business and leisure space within walking distance of public transport, according to Wikipedia.
