- Union Church on Kennedy Road in Hong Kong’s Mid-levels is being rebuilt as a 22-storey residential building
- Developer Henderson Land pays all costs and receives 26 flats and 26 parking spaces
- The church keeps 19 flats, seven for religious and community use
- Heritage campaigners objected to the demolition of the 1950s modernist church
Union Church, a 1950s modernist church on Kennedy Road in Hong Kong’s Mid-levels, was being demolished to make way for a 22-storey residential building, Hong Kong Free Press reported in November 2017.
Under the deal, developer Henderson Land handles all costs. It receives 26 flats and 26 parking spaces after a 99-year lease, while the church retains 19 flats, seven of them reserved for religious and community purposes. Reconstruction was expected to take about five years. The church said it received 650 attendees at its busiest Sunday services, while the sanctuary had only 240 seats.
The location made the deal valuable: apartments under 10 years old in the Mid-levels were listed at HK$21,000 to HK$72,000 per square foot. The church was not the first to cash in. Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church sold its building in 1990, and the site became a 42-storey residential tower.
Heritage campaigners objected. Docomomo International asked for the building to be protected as having “universal cultural value”. Katty Law questioned the deal: “It’s clearly abuse…How can the development rights on top of it turn into luxury apartments?”
Union Church’s swap, land for new space plus flats it can use or let, is a model that could interest Jamaican congregations with well-located property in Kingston, Montego Bay or other growing towns. A developer can bring the capital a church lacks, and the church can end up with a bigger building and an income. But the Hong Kong row is a warning too: turning a church site into private flats can provoke public anger and questions about how the land was meant to be used.
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