The project to redevelop the headquarters of the Housing Bureau (IH), located near the Fai Chi Kei waterfront, has been completed, the Public Works Bureau (DSOP) has announced on its website.
The Public Works Bureau is the public entity tasked with organising and overseeing public construction projects.
The redevelopment project demolished the original 10-floor building in 2019 and constructed a new one with 23 floors on the same site.
After the demolition, the redevelopment of the Housing Bureau’s headquarters was carried out through two separate tenders – a tender for its pile foundation, and a tender for its basement and superstructure.
The project’s pile foundation work got off the ground in January 2021 and was completed in January 2022, after which the construction of the new building’s basement and superstructure started in August 2022.
The Public Works Bureau announced on its website last week that the building’s basement and superstructure has been completed.
According to the DSOP website, the basement and superstructure work cost 257 million patacas.
However, the cost of the new building’s pile foundation work is not available on the DSOP website.
After the Housing Bureau’s original headquarters was demolished for redevelopment, its main office was temporarily relocated to the ground floor of the nearby Cheng Chong Building in Ilha Verde, a subsidised home-ownership scheme (HOS) estate.
According to the DSOP website, the site where the Housing Bureau’s redeveloped headquarters is located covers about 1,430 square metres. The new building has a gross floor area of about 26,000 square metres.
The bureau’s redeveloped headquarters is located at the junction of Rua Norte do Patane (沙梨頭北街) and Travessa Norte do Patane (沙梨頭北巷), near the east-side waterfront of Patane North Bay.
Patane North Bay, a bay off Fai Chi Kei and Ilha Verde, is known as Fai Chi Kei North Bay in Cantonese.
In the run-up to the completion of the redevelopment project of the Housing Bureau’s headquarters, the bureau launched a public tender in June last year for the new building’s internal design and decoration, which is now still being carried out for a price tag of 116.68 million patacas.
Consequently, the redevelopment of the bureau’s headquarters cost about 370 million patacas not including the unknown cost of its pile foundation work.
This handout photo released by the Public Works Bureau (DSOP) last week shows the newly completed headquarters of the Housing Bureau (IH) near the Fai Chi Kei waterfront.