Creditors put tycoon Chen Hongtian's HK$680 mil Frank Gehry-designed Hong Kong flat up for sale

By Lam Ka-sing

/ SCMP |

May 12, 2023 1:35 PM SGT

Developed by Swire Properties, Opus Hong Kong is the fruit of a collaboration with Frank Gehry – it is his first and only residential project in Asia. Photo: Handout

SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - Creditors continued selling tycoon Chen Hongtian's assets in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

A HK$680 million ($116 million) flat he owned in Opus Hong Kong in eastern Mid-Levels has been put up for sale by tender by the receivers, according to a statement by Savills, which said it had been appointed the sole agent for the deal.

Chen and his wife, Chen Yao Li Ni, bought the fifth-floor flat on 53 Stubbs Road for HK$387 million in September 2015, according to official records. In February, the flat was seized by Bank of Communications, which extended a mortgage in August 2019. The bank has appointed Deloitte China partners Derek Lai Kar-yan and Ivan Chan Man-hoi as the receivers.

The flat's current market valuation stands at HK$680 million, Savills told the Post.

"Its value is extraordinary, making it easily one of the most precious residential properties in Asia," Thomas See, senior associate director, investment CEO office of Savills, said with regard to Opus Hong Kong.

Chen, whose Cheung Kei Group owns offices, hotels and finance firms, has had at least three assets seized by lenders in Hong Kong. The three properties - a 9,212 sq ft house at 15 Gough Hill Road on The Peak, the Opus Hong Kong flat and One HarbourGate East Tower - were mortgaged with banks for about HK$6 billion, but are valued at about HK$10 billion, according to Chen.

Chen and his wife bought the fifth-floor flat on 53 Stubbs Road for HK$387 million in September 2015. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Chen told the Post in 2016 that the Opus Hong Kong flat was "too tiny" and that was why he bought the Gough Hill Road property.

Tuesday's developments come a day after One HarbourGate East Tower in Hung Hom was also put up for sale through a tender by receivers. "I will ask lawyers to study it," Chen told the Post when shown a Savills statement about the tower on Sunday.

The open tender for the Opus Hong Kong flat, which comes with two parking spaces, is to be closed at noon on August 8 tentatively and will see the property sold on an "as is" basis in its current condition with non-vacant possession, which means it may not be empty.

Developed by Swire Properties on a site long possessed by the company as a home for its executives, Opus Hong Kong is the fruit of a collaboration with Frank Gehry - it is his first and only residential project in Asia.

The 5,154 sq ft flat comprises five bedrooms, of which four are ensuites, a study, a living room, a dining room and a kitchen. It has an open-plan design and a ceiling height of more than four metres, and is the only unit on the entire floor, the Savills statement said.

The building twists to give each of its 12 flats a unique floor plan, and is only a nine minutes' drive away from the business district and SoHo in Central.

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