When the Kwok brothers built an ark… another story
Three billionaire brothers, the Kwoks, apparently took a long hard look at the melting ice-caps and rising waters of the oceans and decided that the time has come to build an ark. Not for them a naval architect to design the ship, they simply took the plans and specs of an earlier successful model and copied it. Noah would have been proud except that he too was not the designer of his ark. His contribution was the money he raised on a Personal Loan which he used to send warnings out in all directions.
A life-size replica
The new ark is anchored off the coast of Hong Kong which at the moment is struck by a catastrophe – not rain pouring down, but an economy sliding into the mud. The island of Hong Kong, usually the dynamic metropolis of the Far East, has sunk into the depths of the global recession and is having a desperate time.
The ark
The Hong Kong ark, designed as a new tourist and visitors’ attraction, is 450 feet long, has a luxury hotel at roof level, and is populated with 67 pairs of fiberglass animals. They are planning the Grand Opening soon. Unlike Noah’s, this ark was not a rush-job and has been in the planning stage for 17 years. Now the recession provides a nice marketing hook for the Kwoks’ ambitious project, which will hopefully bring visitors from beyond Hong Kong’s city limits and inject a little cash into the island.
The plan
This version of the ark contains 270,000 square feet of space and was developed in conjunction with five Christian organizations. It comprises a restaurant, an exhibition hall and children’s museum as well as Noah’s Resort hotel. The ark is beached on a small island in Hong Kong’s harbor and must be reached by the ferry which plies from the foot of the busy bridge that connects the city to the airport.
Ever heard of Sun Hung Kai Properties
At the height of the real-estate boom, Sun Hung Kai Properties was the world’s largest property developer by market capitalization. The Kwok brothers are the heirs to this blue-chip company founded by their father. In recent years, the three brothers squabbled and last year the board voted to oust eldest brother Walter Kwok as chairman and installed their 80-year-old mother in his place.
A matter of faith
The Noah’s Ark project reflects Thomas Kwok’s evangelical Christian faith. During the 1990s, he set up a church on the 75th-floor pyramid atrium atop Sun Hung Kai’s Central Plaza office complex. The Noah’s Ark project was initially hatched as a theme park with rides, but Mr. Kwok thought he could improve on this. It was held up in planning for several years, and construction on the ark’s foundations didn’t begin in earnest until 2004.
And a matter of survival
“People are experiencing a crisis right now,” says Mr. Lu, standing in front of his masterpiece floating in the China Sea. “Hong Kong is having a really bad time. Everything is a little upside down. Is it possible that this financial tsunami has come here for a reason? Whatever it is, the doors of the ark are open, and the animals, representing new life, are going to save us.”
