Sustainable Development as A Win–Win Development: A Hong Kong Empirical Study of the Tai Kwun Heritage Project

Abstract

This empirical study of the value-enhancing effects of a new innovative hub for art, culture, and heritage experiences (arts hub) reusing the heritage buildings of an old prison, an ex-police station cum detention centre called “Tai Kwun” (Big Station), on neighboring residential properties, treats sustainable development as a developmental process to achieve a “win–win” production of two originally mutually exclusive environmental goods by transforming negative externalities into positive ones, as encapsulated in Yu's model. The study demonstrates the win–win idea from a neo-institutional economic perspective. The empirical results of a regression analysis, based on a total of 1541 sets of transaction records of residential units in the vicinity of Tai Kwun transacted between January 1993 to December 2023, showed that the hub was a win–win solution for heritage conservation and residential development.