Grand Central Plaza

Shopping mall in Sha Tin, Hong Kong

22°23′08″N 114°11′16″E / 22.38556°N 114.18778°E / 22.38556; 114.18778Opening date1995; 29 years ago (1995)OwnerSun Hung Kai PropertiesPublic transit accessSha Tin station

Grand Central Plaza

Traditional Chinese

新城市中央廣場

Simplified Chinese

新城市中央广场

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	xin1 cheng2 shi4 zhong1 yang1 guang3 chang3
Yue: Cantonese
Jyutping	san1 sing4 si5 zung1 joeng1 gwong2 coeng4

Grand Central Plaza (Chinese: 新城市中央廣場) is a commercial development located near the town centre of Sha Tin, Hong Kong. It comprises two 16-storey office towers atop a multi-storey shopping podium called HomeSquare which specialises in home decor and furnishings. It is owned by Sun Hung Kai Properties, which also owns the nearby New Town Plaza, and was completed in 1995.

Tenants

HomeSquare is a thematic shopping centre housed in the podium base of the development and designed by architect Barrie Ho.^[1] It is owned by Sun Hung Kai Properties, and has five floors filled with shops offering home furnishings. The grand opening and renaming ceremony was held on 7 November 2010 following refurbishment of the retail levels.

An IKEA store, one of four in Hong Kong, occupies 120,000 square feet (11,000 m²) of the uppermost podium levels and was the largest in Hong Kong until the Kowloon Bay store relocated from Telford Gardens to MegaBox.^[2]

Atop the shopping levels are two office towers which provide more than 620,000 square feet (58,000 m²) of office space.^[3]

HomeSquare entrance
Atrium before renovation
Atrium after renovation
Fifth storey

Footbridge controversy

Grand Central Plaza is part of the New Town Plaza development. Both properties are owned by the same developer, Sun Hung Kai. Most patrons access Grand Central Plaza by descending a rampway attached to Sha Tin station and walking a short distance along the public pavement of Pai Tau Street.^[4]

The government and Sun Hung Kai Properties proposed in 2002 the construction of a four-metre-wide footbridge along this street to link the railway station concourse with Grand Central Plaza and the Sha Tin Government Offices. Sun Hung Kai has offered to finance the bridge, and Grand Central Plaza is equipped with a reserved stub at the first storey to which the footbridge is meant to connect.^[4]

The proposal was met with great resistance from residents of Pai Tau Village, located directly between the railway station and the shopping centre. The villagers objected to the trimming of trees which shield the buildings from the busy roadway, and stated that the footbridge would bring bad feng shui to their traditional village.^[4]^[5] They also complained that their concerns were ignored by the Sha Tin District Council, and that their counter-proposal for a different footbridge route was not taken seriously.^[4]

However, in May 2012 the government stated that they would not pursue construction of the footbridge in the short-term owing to various engineering and cost concerns. They instead outlined several plans to improve the walkway along Pai Tau Street.^[6]

Reservation for proposed footbridge
Protest banners at Pai Tau Village
Banners at the Sha Tin Rural Committee

References

^ "About us". HomeSquare. Sun Hung Kai Properties.
^ Sun, Celine (2 December 2009). "Home furnisher Ikea shows off its supersized Sha Tin makeover". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
^ "Grand Central Plaza". Sun Hung Kai Properties. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Tsoi, Grace (8 July 2010). "A Bridge Too Far". HK Magazine. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
^ "一條天橋揭沙田區議會底牌民建聯操控　偏幫地產商". Apple Daily. 3 August 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
^ "《港鐵沙田站至沙田政府合署行人天橋》計劃的發展排頭街行人道改善計劃" (PDF). Discussion Papers of Traffic and Transport Committee. Sha Tin District Council. 8 May 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 8 June 2014.