Da Nang administration auctions off their offices

The central city of Da Nang announced it would auction off the current headquarters of the local authorities in order to raise capital for the construction of a new 34-story administrative building.

Last year, the city approved construction of the multistory building at a cost of VND879 billion (US$54.7 million) to centralize over 1,000 employees of the local People's Committee, departments, and subsidiary agencies.

The municipal administration said the existing offices of the Department of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture will be the first to be auctioned at a starting price of VND22.9 billion ($1.42 million).

The Da Nang House Management Company was assigned to organize the auction.
Director of the auction house, Nguyen Cong Lang, said that if the initial sale ran smoothly, the city will auction off the offices of the judiciary, health, natural resources and environment, and planning and investment departments.

The city has set regulations for the office space auctioned off.

The existing structures will be demolished and the buyer must build a new structure between 15-20 stories which will cover at least 80 percent of the land they purchased.

The offices being auctioned off cover 800 square meters with a usable area of 909 square meters in the city’s center.

Within 60 days of the auction, the buyer would be granted owner-ship certificate of the land and the land will be handed over to buyers by June 30, 2010 at the latest.
The deadline to apply to enter the bidding is the 25th of this month.

The date for the auction is not fixed yet.

Construction of the new 34-story administrative building is expected to start late this year and will take approximately three years to be completed.

Upon completion, the 57,000-square-meter structure will accommodate 20 government departments and agencies that are currently scattered throughout the city.

The South Korean Mooyoung Architects & Engineering Company will carry out the project, according to an agreement signed early this year by the city administration.