The Mariners’ Club, a landmark that opened in 1967 in Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui area, will undergo an extensive HK$6 billion (US$1.28 billion) redevelopment to convert the site into a combined hotel and club for mariners, expected to complete in 2022.
The contract was awarded to Empire Group, chaired by Walter Kwok Ping-sheung, the former chairman and chief executive of Sun Hung Kai Properties.
The redevelopment will include a 42-storey hotel, which “will not be extravagant but practical and in tune with the neighbourhood”, said Albert Yiu Chi-wai, chief property officer at Empire Group Holdings.
The hotel’s floors nine to 42 will accommodate 500 hotel rooms.
“All the hotel rooms will enjoy a sea view, with one side facing Central and another North Point,” Yiu said.
Floors one to eight will accommodate a garden, 75 rooms for seamen, a rebuilt church capable of holding 200 worshippers, conference rooms, a lounge and restaurants.
The group is confident of the hotel’s future prospects. “The number of tourists (in Hong Kong) in December last year was up 4.7 per cent compared to the previous year,” Yiu said. “That month’s hotel occupancy rate stood at more than 90%.”