InterContinental Indigo Hotel proposed for Wanchai

Indigo Hotel WanchaiAn application for planning permission for a larger InterContinental-owned Indigo Hotel has been rejected by the Hong Kong Town Planning Board. (More details of the rejected Application can be seen here: A/H5/383)

The Metro Planning Committee decided:

402nd MPC MEETING ON 21.8.2009

After further deliberation, the Committee decided to reject the application and the reasons were :

(a) the proposed hotel development with a plot ratio of 13.317 was considered not compatible with the development density within the “Residential (Group A)” (“R(A)”) zone; and

(b) the approval of the application would set an undesirable precedent for similar hotel developments within the “R(A)” zone.

It should be noted that a prior Application for Planning Approval (Application A/H5/378) was approved in January 2009 to build a single block hotel with a plot ratio of 12.32 (approximately 93,000 sq ft total floor area) and of 27 storeys in height with 201 hotel rooms.

This latest Application was accompanied by a Supplementary Planning Statement (SPS) in which the Applicant expressed their desire to increase the allowed plot ratio to 13.317 and number of storeys by 2 in order to accommodate the requirements of an InterContinental Indigo Hotel on the site. The number of rooms proposed is only 160 as each room would be larger in size.

In return for these concessions, the suggested benefits would be:
– The first Hotel Indigo in the Asia Pacific region; and
– the first LEED Platinum certification for a building in Hong Kong

According to the InterContinental Hotel Group’s own website they have another Indigo Hotel project slated for Shanghai’s Bund so the Hong Kong development may in fact not be Asia Pacific Region’s first Indigo Hotel in the end.

After reading the press release from the Hotel Operator, it appears as though the number of rooms has been reduced to 150 to meet the floor area requirements of the original Planning Permission.

We applaud the developer and Hotel Operator for taking the LEED (pun intended) to make this hotel LEED Certified.