reporter2
26-03-14, 11:39
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/archive/saturday/specials/property/escalator-sounds-death-knell-small-hk-shops-20140325
Published March 25, 2014
Escalator sounds death knell for small HK shops
With the easier access at Sai Ying Pun, gentrification will edge out the businesses
http://i.imgur.com/VMCWpFL.jpg
Moving along: Within the past few months, High Street, which intersects Centre Street, has acquired an elegant French restaurant right by the new escalator.
[HONG KONG] The streets around Centre Street, in the Hong Kong neighbourhood of Sai Ying Pun, are a microcosm of the vibrant, small-business life that makes this city as colourful as it is. There are shops selling large, wobbling blocks of fresh tofu, bean sprouts and papayas. There are tiny stalls selling fish balls, pork, noodles or copy books to local schoolchildren. There are hardware stores, cheap clothing outlets and clattering car repair shops, whose shrines to the Chinese Earth God provide a colourful counterpoint to the oil-stained floors inside.
Much of this life, however, is in the process of disappearing, as a new architectural addition to Centre Street - an outdoor escalator that grinds up the street's steep incline under a modernist roof - takes its toll on the neighbourhood's commercial ecosystem.
Hong Kong is an exceedingly hilly city. The high-rises that house its residents and the offices that have turned the former British colony into an international financial hub are wedged between the sea and steep peaks. In days of yore, wealthy residents had themselves carried in sedan chairs when they wanted to travel to the higher reaches of the city. In 1888, a tram began trundling up and down the steep incline to Victoria Peak.
More recently, urban planners hit upon the concept of outdoor escalators to make uphill districts more accessible, especially during the hot and humid months. A little over two decades ago, an escalator that winds uphill in about 20 segments and has become a tourist attraction in its own right began operations in an area now known as Soho. That escalator brought more than just convenience. It quickly acted as a magnet for Western-style restaurants, bars, boutiques and wealthy residents - and helped gentrify the neighbourhood around it.
"When they first built the Soho escalator, there was a lot of opposition because people didn't understand what it would do," said Wayne Parfitt, an Australian who founded a restaurant group that has outlets in Soho and now Sai Ying Pun. But, he said, the escalator gave the neighbourhood an injection of energy. "Yes, you lose some character, but you also create something new."
What was lost was much of the area's old, Chinese feel: Many of the open-air food stalls and printing shops that used to thrive there are gone, squeezed out by soaring rents.
Injection of energy
There is every indication that the escalator on Centre Street, which was completed late last year - and a new subway station that is due to open nearby later this year - is having a similar impact on Sai Ying Pun.
Within the past few months, High Street, which intersects Centre Street, has acquired an elegant French restaurant right by the new escalator, as well as half a dozen Italian restaurants and pizzerias, two Thai restaurants, a sprinkling of Indian, Japanese and Western restaurants and a wine shop.
Jaspas, which serves burgers and fusion food and is part of Mr Parfitt's restaurant company, opened last month in a site once occupied by a store selling cheap clothing. A restaurant called the High Street Grill opened in December, replacing a traditional Chinese restaurant. A dozen sites are empty, advertising for new tenants or in the process of being converted into new shops and restaurants. "Every few weeks you see a new place opening up," said Zoe Au of Apex, a real estate agency on High Street. "Everything is changing very fast."
All this has drawn in wealthier people, including expatriates, who used to barely set foot in the neighbourhood until a year or two ago, but now delight in the area's bohemian feel.
A painful side effect, however, has been higher rents - a hot-button issue in Hong Kong, which has some of the highest rents and property prices in the world, and where nearly one in five people live in poverty, according to a government report published last year. Many Sai Ying Pun residents and storekeepers, rather than welcoming their neighbourhood's newfound trendiness, are worried about it. "Everything has gotten expensive," said Yeung Sun, the co-owner of a shop that sells and services tires and car batteries. "There are many more Western restaurants that only foreigners go to. I never go there. I can't afford them."
Two small noodle restaurants and a place that sells bowls of congee, or rice porridge, for about HK$16 (S$2.60), are the only cheap eateries left on High Street. Across from Mr Yeung's workshop, an Italian restaurant recently replaced a car repair shop.
Ground-floor retail spaces in the area now cost about HK$55 or HK$60 per square foot per month, according to Ms Au, the real estate agent. Two years ago, it was HK$30 to HK$35.
"The new escalator does bring more people, but not so much business," said Lee In-yu, whose small stationery and toy shop is packed with pens, dolls and stickers featuring Hong Kong pop stars.
In their 20 years on High Street, Ms Lee and her husband, Cheng Chi-ming, survived the arrival of the Internet and computers: They phased out the printing business that used to be their main source of income and added phone cases and cables to their shelves when cellphones took off.
Sai Ying Pun's gentrification may be harder to survive. Because many cheap restaurants closed last summer, far fewer students from nearby schools now visit, Ms Lee said. "They used to come to this neighbourhood for lunch, and shop here before they go back to class. That doesn't happen anymore."
The expatriates who have begun moving into the area do visit the little shop from time to time, but do not buy much.
The opening of the new subway station later this year may bring more people, Ms Lee said. But with rents rising fast, she has little hope that she will be able to make ends meet. "We'll probably close in two years' time, if not this year," she said. - NYT
Published March 25, 2014
Escalator sounds death knell for small HK shops
With the easier access at Sai Ying Pun, gentrification will edge out the businesses
http://i.imgur.com/VMCWpFL.jpg
Moving along: Within the past few months, High Street, which intersects Centre Street, has acquired an elegant French restaurant right by the new escalator.
[HONG KONG] The streets around Centre Street, in the Hong Kong neighbourhood of Sai Ying Pun, are a microcosm of the vibrant, small-business life that makes this city as colourful as it is. There are shops selling large, wobbling blocks of fresh tofu, bean sprouts and papayas. There are tiny stalls selling fish balls, pork, noodles or copy books to local schoolchildren. There are hardware stores, cheap clothing outlets and clattering car repair shops, whose shrines to the Chinese Earth God provide a colourful counterpoint to the oil-stained floors inside.
Much of this life, however, is in the process of disappearing, as a new architectural addition to Centre Street - an outdoor escalator that grinds up the street's steep incline under a modernist roof - takes its toll on the neighbourhood's commercial ecosystem.
Hong Kong is an exceedingly hilly city. The high-rises that house its residents and the offices that have turned the former British colony into an international financial hub are wedged between the sea and steep peaks. In days of yore, wealthy residents had themselves carried in sedan chairs when they wanted to travel to the higher reaches of the city. In 1888, a tram began trundling up and down the steep incline to Victoria Peak.
More recently, urban planners hit upon the concept of outdoor escalators to make uphill districts more accessible, especially during the hot and humid months. A little over two decades ago, an escalator that winds uphill in about 20 segments and has become a tourist attraction in its own right began operations in an area now known as Soho. That escalator brought more than just convenience. It quickly acted as a magnet for Western-style restaurants, bars, boutiques and wealthy residents - and helped gentrify the neighbourhood around it.
"When they first built the Soho escalator, there was a lot of opposition because people didn't understand what it would do," said Wayne Parfitt, an Australian who founded a restaurant group that has outlets in Soho and now Sai Ying Pun. But, he said, the escalator gave the neighbourhood an injection of energy. "Yes, you lose some character, but you also create something new."
What was lost was much of the area's old, Chinese feel: Many of the open-air food stalls and printing shops that used to thrive there are gone, squeezed out by soaring rents.
Injection of energy
There is every indication that the escalator on Centre Street, which was completed late last year - and a new subway station that is due to open nearby later this year - is having a similar impact on Sai Ying Pun.
Within the past few months, High Street, which intersects Centre Street, has acquired an elegant French restaurant right by the new escalator, as well as half a dozen Italian restaurants and pizzerias, two Thai restaurants, a sprinkling of Indian, Japanese and Western restaurants and a wine shop.
Jaspas, which serves burgers and fusion food and is part of Mr Parfitt's restaurant company, opened last month in a site once occupied by a store selling cheap clothing. A restaurant called the High Street Grill opened in December, replacing a traditional Chinese restaurant. A dozen sites are empty, advertising for new tenants or in the process of being converted into new shops and restaurants. "Every few weeks you see a new place opening up," said Zoe Au of Apex, a real estate agency on High Street. "Everything is changing very fast."
All this has drawn in wealthier people, including expatriates, who used to barely set foot in the neighbourhood until a year or two ago, but now delight in the area's bohemian feel.
A painful side effect, however, has been higher rents - a hot-button issue in Hong Kong, which has some of the highest rents and property prices in the world, and where nearly one in five people live in poverty, according to a government report published last year. Many Sai Ying Pun residents and storekeepers, rather than welcoming their neighbourhood's newfound trendiness, are worried about it. "Everything has gotten expensive," said Yeung Sun, the co-owner of a shop that sells and services tires and car batteries. "There are many more Western restaurants that only foreigners go to. I never go there. I can't afford them."
Two small noodle restaurants and a place that sells bowls of congee, or rice porridge, for about HK$16 (S$2.60), are the only cheap eateries left on High Street. Across from Mr Yeung's workshop, an Italian restaurant recently replaced a car repair shop.
Ground-floor retail spaces in the area now cost about HK$55 or HK$60 per square foot per month, according to Ms Au, the real estate agent. Two years ago, it was HK$30 to HK$35.
"The new escalator does bring more people, but not so much business," said Lee In-yu, whose small stationery and toy shop is packed with pens, dolls and stickers featuring Hong Kong pop stars.
In their 20 years on High Street, Ms Lee and her husband, Cheng Chi-ming, survived the arrival of the Internet and computers: They phased out the printing business that used to be their main source of income and added phone cases and cables to their shelves when cellphones took off.
Sai Ying Pun's gentrification may be harder to survive. Because many cheap restaurants closed last summer, far fewer students from nearby schools now visit, Ms Lee said. "They used to come to this neighbourhood for lunch, and shop here before they go back to class. That doesn't happen anymore."
The expatriates who have begun moving into the area do visit the little shop from time to time, but do not buy much.
The opening of the new subway station later this year may bring more people, Ms Lee said. But with rents rising fast, she has little hope that she will be able to make ends meet. "We'll probably close in two years' time, if not this year," she said. - NYT