The real reason for the Beach Village renovation
WHAT SHOULD WE HACK OFF TODAY BOSS?
OH HELL, LET'S JUST HACK IT ALL OFF!
Here is the “inside information” on DB's Beach Village "renovation" :
Under the control of the Cha family, HK Resorts, the developer that owns DB, have in recent years been heavily promoting sales of new phases Siena and now Chianti. You have probably noticed the crowds of visitors, prospective buyers, who have been enticed to visit DB on the weekends. As one of DB’s first phases of flats, Beach Village was becoming noticeably worn and since it boarders the beach and the plaza, it is the first area that visitors experience upon arriving.
HKR had became concerned that the run-down appearance of Beach Village was negatively affecting their sales of their new phases, Siena and Chianti, and so forced this “renovation” on the owners committee, which they control through their proxies.
A much more extensive renovation than just a simple “coat of paint” was pushed through, despite the already significant disruption of the Plaza renovation and the fact that there has already been a tremendous amount of internal renovations in Beach Village as a result of its age and poor quality construction.
It is not clear as to why it was deemed necessary for large portions of the walls to be hacked off, or why the entire internal hallways needed to be stripped of concrete with even the tiles being taken up. There was no visible wearing of the concrete and specious reasons were given in the Village Owners Committee meetings.
There is wide-spread suspicion that HKR is in some way connected to the contractor, and that though the majority of this renovation is unnecessary, as it is funded by the owners, and the tenants and residents have no say, it is worth doing for the developer as it helps to maintain the value of the new phases being built and sold; also it creates revenues to the contractor(s) and suppliers who are likely owned, controlled or owed something for somekind of recipricol deal with HKR or the Cha family.
Under the control of the Cha family, HK Resorts, the developer that owns DB, have in recent years been heavily promoting sales of new phases Siena and now Chianti. You have probably noticed the crowds of visitors, prospective buyers, who have been enticed to visit DB on the weekends. As one of DB’s first phases of flats, Beach Village was becoming noticeably worn and since it boarders the beach and the plaza, it is the first area that visitors experience upon arriving.
HKR had became concerned that the run-down appearance of Beach Village was negatively affecting their sales of their new phases, Siena and Chianti, and so forced this “renovation” on the owners committee, which they control through their proxies.
A much more extensive renovation than just a simple “coat of paint” was pushed through, despite the already significant disruption of the Plaza renovation and the fact that there has already been a tremendous amount of internal renovations in Beach Village as a result of its age and poor quality construction.
It is not clear as to why it was deemed necessary for large portions of the walls to be hacked off, or why the entire internal hallways needed to be stripped of concrete with even the tiles being taken up. There was no visible wearing of the concrete and specious reasons were given in the Village Owners Committee meetings.
There is wide-spread suspicion that HKR is in some way connected to the contractor, and that though the majority of this renovation is unnecessary, as it is funded by the owners, and the tenants and residents have no say, it is worth doing for the developer as it helps to maintain the value of the new phases being built and sold; also it creates revenues to the contractor(s) and suppliers who are likely owned, controlled or owed something for somekind of recipricol deal with HKR or the Cha family.
posted by Fredthom @ 1:25 pm
14 comments
14 Comments:
My wife and I have a new born and a child of 3. we are both going nuts and borderline seriously nuts!
We are given false excuses and promises and our daily lives are governed-irrespective of the mgt committee-by the workers -probably by now deaf dumb and blind.
There is no respite from this hell. No management; no communication; no reason.
There's nothing wrong with my hallway. This is so unreal( my language is curtailed)> Normal human beiungs should not suffer this humiliation. This is wronggggggggggggg!
You are right, it is a humiliation. Most of us are overseas expats and they know we won't be here long and have no pull or power. That is why we need to get together and hit them where it hurts: rentals and sales of new flats. If people find out the real problems at DB the locals won't buy here and the expats won't live here, so we need to publicise our plight and the agonies of having to live through this.
I agree with the complaints to some extend but not all. Inconvience, yes. Some hack-off might appear to be unnecessary, but I would rather trust the professionals because our houses are already 20+ years old. I would only object if they charge extra other than the contract amount. I have been living in Beach Village for 20 years +. I am glad that our village has a regular renovation arrangement which most other private properties in HK do not. Do I trust HKR? No, but I would not suspect the VOC's dedication to exert a great deal of pressure on HKR in spending my money. By and large, I would support the renovation.
What I want to know is: why do we need so many "external renovations" in the various phases of DB? Those three buildings near the tennis courts, (Brilliance Ct. etc.) seem to have had 3 different renovations since the mid-90's, and ther are several others phases that have had outside reno's, and none of the buidings here are really that old. 20 years is not old. What couldn't they just have painted Beach Village? HK has a humid climate, but so does Singapore, and I lived there for 4 years from late-90's to early 2000's and never saw the kind of contstant repair and renovations we have in DB. I would love to hear from a knowledgeable engineer as to why these buidlings need so much, did HKR build crappy buildings?
As a family with 2 young children, these renovations are distressing, unnecessary & ludicrous. To renovate a building to such an extent with people living inside is beyond belief. The fact that most of us are paying for the privilege of living through it is beyond reproach. Not only do we lose part of our living space (the reason we are living in Beach Village for the views & balconies), but we are subjected to noise, dust and the toxicity of glues & paints (7 days a week). The scaffolding still remains despite the outside renovations being finshed for more than 3 weeks. We have had muddy pools of water where the stairs once were for over a week. Our home environment is unbearable - so we have decided to bear it no longer and return to Australia where we have more control over our home environment. I hope HKR ends up with many empty apartments as this is totally unacceptable. We are living inside!
We would be willing to join any action group who is seeking an end to this noise, disaster & disruption.
Just let us know where, when & how.
To the guy who wrote the comment that he "supported" the renovation, and who thinks it is better to "trust the professionals" about the amount of wall demolition needed: I spoke to the consultant hired by DB, and he said that the system is that the demolition contractor's people mark down the walls that they feel need doing after conducting a "tapping-test" to hear if there are any "bubbles" (pockets of separation between the concrete coating and the concrete wall material). Then, according to the consultant, it is checked by the consultant's people too, and they leave a mark giving final approval to hack it off or not. In other words, the contractor for the demoliton work is trying to do more hacking off; with the consultants maybe limiting the amount.
Doesn't sound very "professional" to me. (Also, I never saw anyone checking the marked area on my building; and everything that was marked up was subsequently hacked off.)
Furthermore, structuring the proceedure in this way almost guarantees that more destruction will be done rather then less, as the demolition contractor, likely paid by the hour, is incentivised to do more.
Also, I have noticed that on my building they only hack off what can be easily reached. Meanwhile, stained concrete behind pipes, perforated by the pipe's supporting brackets, remains untouched.
Are they trying to say that the concrete in the easily reached areas all needs to go, but the stuff with stains, holes and metal sticking out of it somehow doesn't?? How is it possible that the worst appearing stuff is ok, while the easy to reach stuff is not?
Isn't it more likley that they are just making a "good show" of removing the concrete to make it seem that something is being done?
After seeing all this I can not believe that there is any consistency to this demolition/destruction at all, or that it is necessary. Paricularly the internal stairway and wall demolition they are doing.
A friend of the family, who before his retirement ran a construction company in Europe, visited me during the Lunar New Year at the flat I am renting in Seabird Lane. We talked about the project (which was just getting started at that time) and he was surprised why the owners agreed to such an elaborate (e.g. expensive) and unnecessary approach, which was likely to result in merely cosmetic improvements and thus, could not possibly lift property values that much. Thanks to your blog I now understand that it wasn't the owners, who came up with the plan. It all makes more sense to me now. Whereas in Europe, one fixes a particular problem when it occurs, in DB entire buildings are gutted and rebuild - with the residents still in them !!! Honestly, if I had known about this, I would have canceled my lease and moved to the Midlevels for a year!
I have had my outside laundry area destroyed, gas heater broken off the wall due to falling concrete, 30' bamboo poles have come flying into my yard due the proffessionals dismantling technique(my kids have not been allowed to play in the yard in case something like this would happen). They have jackhammered out stairwell 5 times (yes 5 times) in more or less the same spots each time.
I would love to know the real cost of these renos, the amount of jobs that have had to be re-done is unbelievalbe.
This is bad, even for HK!!!!!!!!!
I agreed that the renovation works is disgusting but it is totally the problem of the management office or the consultants team employed by the management. There is no reason why the owners have to pay for that !!!!!
I have complained, contacted management, even lodged a complaint with EPD and Dept of Health. Nothing. The dust is making my children sick, and they have never stoped coughing since it started.
Keung F***** Kee assures me regularly they will use dust vacuum etc, but No.
I have now found an entertaining therapeutic and very effective way of reducing the dust.
Everytime they start, I start hosing the area down. And I mean the whole internal stairway area. Yes it creates a muddy mess, but at least my kids can't breathe that in. It immediately sends the contractor away, then management comes and visits , he shakes his head tells me to stop, I keep hosing and he gets quite animated and goes away. Next day the same.
It has become quite therapeutic to see their looks of disgust when I start.
How hard can concrete rendering really be, I mean really.
The hose connection is under the steps if anyone wants to know, plus if they try to turn it off, hose near them to ward them away.
They get bored quickly.
I hate you Keung Kee, and I hate you HKR, you have made my family's life a misery.
Beware the angry gweilo with the long hose.
Having been on the VOC, it is indeed a waste of time. Sadly enough the owners of Beach and all other villages have 1 big problem, they are divided amongst themselves (comes in handy for HKR). HKR runs the show without consideration of owners or tenants wishes and will continue to do so till we stand up as a group.
Financial loss is their only consideration as well as negative publicity. Focussing on these two issues might book results, whereas direct negotiation is a complete waste of time. A signature campaign, critizing the way DB is managed would be a good start if we can combine it with SCMP or similar. Anybody interested to further explore the options?
Letter being prepared to HKR below: any additional thoughts?
HKR Corporate Affairs
June 13th, 2006
Re: dragon boat Carnival / Plaza renovation
Dear Sirs,
I am writing you regarding the last Dragon Boat Carnival. Having participated at this event were we rented boothspace at the rate of $1800, I was extremely dissatisfied with the way HKR has run this years event.
The concept of the carnival and booths are to attract the spectators of this event to come down to the plaza and create possible business opportunities to the booth operators.
In the past one of the main reasons for the participants and spectators to come to plaza was to purchase food and beverages. To the surprise and dissatisfaction of several of the booth operators we found out on the day itself that the Residents club has a very large food and beverage booth (free of rental charge of course) on the beach. Therefore reducing drastically the amount of people going to the plaza for F&B requirements.
This was done without informing any of the booth operators when they booked and paid their fees.
This practice is unfair but a typical HKR behaviour:
1. The Residents Club did not need to pay any rental, whereas all other booth operators were charged.
2. The space allocated to them was 7 times larger than normal booth and in a prime position. No tender was allowed or any information was given to participants about this fact. All other booth operators were allocated a random space.
3. The Residents Club is a private club, for which the members pay a monthly membership fee. If the Residents Club starts supplying the general public (see your Peony counter) it would contravene their status of a private member club and the actual paying members have no benefit compared to the general public.
4. As so often HKR proves once more that it runs DB on an opportunistic unprofessional bases, grabbing money where ever possible without thinking or considering the rights of paying participants / owners of DB.
This brings me to the Plaza renovation; in your last DB Magazine you sent out a information about the new tenants who will occupy space in the plaza. You advertise the great variety of choice on offer, although the actual F&B outlets confirmed are at least 6 less than before the renovation.
No consultation with the owners is done on what exactly they would like to get as services, nor about the way the plaza should look like. This is decided by your management, of which more than half do not live in DB and therefore do not understand our needs.
The Plaza is place where the residents are supposed to meet up, a social kind of gathering space offering commercial shops and services. You might not be aware of the fact that most residential units are taken up by families with children. DB has a lot of them, and your new design and layout of the plaza complete ignores that fact. Whereas in the past there were a few areas were kids could play rather safely (small lawn area), no such facilities are available anymore. The choice of paving has resulted in a plaza which is very unsafe for children. Falling on the slippery and uneven paving in the plaza will lead to much more injury (for which I am sure you will not take any responsibility). The bad quality of workmanship and choice of materials makes it very uncomfortable for ladies with high heels, people with rolling suitcases or baby strollers.
I am convinced that the overall layout and design of the plaza must look very nice from high up in a helicopter, but has brought no improvement to the old design.
As I am expecting your standard reply: “Our management will take your opinion in consideration”, kindly note that only if you are genuinely interested in listening to the concerns of Residents you could reply.
Kind regards,
One of many dissatisfied residents
We are also keen to join an action group. Unfortunately I’ve only just found this site and missed the June 9 meeting but want to join forces and take action. What we’ve had to put up with is unconscionable. At this point my family and I just want out. We want to leave DB and never return.
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