Vital Heritage Revitalized: Call for Bids to be Issued This Month for Port of Keelung Waterside Cultural-Creative District
Port of Keelung’s West Warehouses 2 and 3 enjoy a nearly nine-decade history that stretches back to the 1930s. To respect and preserve this heritage, the port launched a full-scale restoration of these two structures that preserved as much of the original buildings as possible while using authentic period materials and techniques to repair what had been lost to history or could not be feasibly saved. Restoration of the buildings’ main structures, completed at the end of March 2022, gave new meaning and value to these warehouses. A public call for bids to be issued this month (October 2023) is expected to attract businesses eager to participate in the reopening of the port’s western shoreline as a cultural-creative tourism district. This district is expected to draw cruise passengers, regular visitors to the city, and Keelung City residents as well. Port of Keelung invites you to invest with us in this important part of Keelung City’s 21st century renaissance.
The current bid covers 2,468 square meters of floorspace on the first floor of West Warehouse 2 as well as a 2,692 square meter parking lot adjacent to the warehouse. The October invitation to bid targets investors interested in bringing well-known brand name retailers to the warehouse that will complement the building’s mid-20th century Japanese-colonial ambiance and aura and inject excitement and interest into Port of Keelung’s new waterside cultural-creative tourism district. In addition to serving the shopping needs of city residents and visiting cruise ship passengers, the district is expected to become a tourism and leisure destination for local and international tourists and, ultimately, fuel commercial development and prosperity in neighboring sections of the city.
West Warehouses 2 and 3 were respectively constructed in 1932 and 1934. They once served as a bustling gateway between Taiwan and the outside world and, more recently, as a setting for the 2014 film Kano, directed by Te-sheng Wei. Following two years of restoration and reconstruction work, the warehouses once again have their original two-story design. The first and second floors of West Warehouse 2 are respectively designated for lifestyle / cultural-creative retailers and cruise passenger services, while the first and second floors of West Warehouse 3 are reserved for passenger customs & immigration clearance and luggage services. Taiwan reopened to international cruise line visits on March 7th of this year (2023). Port of Keelung welcomed the MSC Bellissima’s 9,284 passengers on May 4th, demonstrating the powerful draw of the port and its West Passenger Terminal to post-pandemic cruise visitors. Moreover, Port of Keelung’s rosy expectations going forward anticipate the port welcoming 800,000 international cruise passengers in 2024 and one million passengers in 2025, which will return numbers to pre-pandemic visitor levels.
Port of Keelung looks forward to a growing number of city visitors and residents visiting and enjoying the shopping opportunities at West Warehouse 2 as well as witnessing the new cultural-creative face of this historical building.
Provided by:Port Business Dept., Port of Keelung, TIPC
Contact Person:Chih-hung Tsao, Director
Telephone No.:02-24206279
E-mail Address:chtsao@twport.com.tw