Windsor House is a commercial development located on
Gloucester Road in
Causeway Bay
Causeway Bay is list of buildings, sites and areas in Hong Kong, an area and Victoria Park, Hong Kong, a bay on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong, straddling the border of the Eastern District, Hong Kong, Eastern and the Wan Chai District, Wan Chai ...
, Hong Kong, comprising a shopping centre with an office tower above.
History
Windsor House was built on the site of former
Dairy Farm
Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for the long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for the eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a h ...
cold stores. Developer
Hongkong Land
Hongkong Land (HKL) is a property investment, management and development group with commercial and residential property interests across Asia. It owns and manages some 850,000 sq. m. of office and retail property in Asia, principally in Hong K ...
acquired the land when it acquired Dairy Farm in 1972, and originally planned to build a hotel on the site. The cold stores were demolished in July 1976 and the site was temporarily used as a public car park.
The new Windsor House was designed by Hong Kong architecture firm
Palmer and Turner.
It bore the same name as another Hongkong Land building, on
Des Voeux Road Central
Des Voeux Road Central (Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: 德輔道中) and Des Voeux Road West (Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: 德輔道西) are two roads on the north shore of Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. They were named af ...
, that was being demolished as part of the company's major redevelopment of their older properties in
Central.
The building is angled diagonally (relative to the street grid) in order to maximise views of
Victoria Park from the office floors.
In the 1990s, the building was said to comprise about of office space and of retail accommodation.
A contract to construct the first phase of the building was signed on 14 April 1978 by Hongkong Land and
Gammon Construction, and work began on the following day, 15 April 1978.
A
topping out
In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed at the top of a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is ofte ...
ceremony was held on 3 July 1979.
The initial anchor tenant was the
Inland Revenue Department, which leased about a third of the office space at Windsor House to centralise departments that had been scattered across a number of different office buildings.
The building has two service cores – housing lifts, stairwells, toilets, and other uses – which flank the office floors. Part of the reason for including a second service core was that the Inland Revenue Department wanted its own entrance and lifts.
The Inland Revenue Department later moved to the government-owned
Revenue Tower
The Revenue Tower is a skyscraper located in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. The tower rises 49 floors and in height. The building was completed in 1990. The Revenue Tower, which stands as the 93rd-tallest building in Hong Kong, is composed entirely of ...
in order to save on rental costs.
In September 1987,
Chinese Estates acquired two properties from Hongkong Land, Windsor House and
Harcourt House, for HK$2.38 billion.
Windsor House was said to constitute $1.6 billion of this sum.
The retail podium was renovated in 1992. At this time the first to ninth floors of the office tower, which had been vacated by the Inland Revenue Department, were converted to dining and entertainment use.
When the building first opened, the retail podium housed a
Lane Crawford department store. In mid-1997, when their lease at Windsor House expired, Lane Crawford moved to nearby
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...
, owned by parent company
Wharf
A wharf ( or wharfs), quay ( , also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more Berth (mo ...
, due to high rents as well as projected higher sales at the new location.
The retail podium was extensively renovated from 2007 to 2010.
In December 2015 it was announced that Chinese Estates would sell Windsor House to its largest shareholder, the tycoon and fugitive
Joseph Lau, for $12 billion.
Shopping centre
The podium levels have numerous shops, dining outlets, and the Grand Windsor Cinema, operated by MCL Cinemas.
Notable retail tenants include
Bershka,
FANCL Corporation,
G.U.,
Hallmark Cards
Hallmark Cards, Inc. is a Privately held company, privately held, family-owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce Hall, Hallmark is one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of greeting cards in the United ...
,
Mannings,
Pull&Bear,
Sa Sa,
Sephora
Sephora is a French multinational retailer of personal care and beauty products, offering nearly 340 brands alongside its own private label, the Sephora Collection. Its product range includes cosmetics, skincare, fragrance, nail color, beauty t ...
, and
Toys "R" Us
Toys "R" Us is an American toy, clothing, and baby product retailer owned by Tru Kids (doing business as Tru Kids Brands) and various others. The company was founded in 1948 in Washington, D.C.; its first store was built in April 1948, with i ...
.
It is also home to the Causeway Bay Post Office, located on the 10th floor.
Transport
The building is a short walk from Exit E of
Causeway Bay station
Causeway Bay () is an underground metro station on the MTR network in Hong Kong. It is located between and stations on the , and sits underneath Great George Street near Hennessy Road and Yee Wo Street. Named for the Causeway Bay area and it ...
, as well as the Paterson Street/Pennington Street stop of the
Hong Kong Tramways.
References
External links
*
{{Coord, 22.2804, 114.1865, display=title
Causeway Bay
Shopping centres on Hong Kong Island
Skyscraper office buildings in Hong Kong
999-year leases in Hong Kong and Kowloon