Cheung Kong Center is a skyscraper in Central, Hong Kong designed by Cesar Pelli. It is 68 storeys tall with height of and a gross floor area of . When completed in 1999, it was the third-tallest building in the city after the Central Plaza and Bank of China Tower. The Cheung Kong Center sits on the combined sites of the former Hong Kong Hilton, which was demolished in 1995/6, and Beaconsfield House, sold by the Government in 1996. It stands between the HSBC Hong Kong headquarters building and the Bank of China Tower. The building is the headquarters of Cheung Kong Holdings (CHL), and is owned and managed by its 49%-owned associated company Hutchison Whampoa (HW), which later merged in June 2015 as CK Hutchison Holdings; while other tenants include several multinational banking firms. As is common in Hong Kong, coloured lights on the sides of the building illuminate at night in intricate light shows. Site background The 26-storey Hilton Hotel building and its site, Inland Lot 7702, was owned by a wholly owned subsidiary of HW, which licensed Hilton Hotels Group to operate it for 50 years. In January 1994, with about 20 years of the management contract to run, HW announced the buyout of the unexpired term for US$125 million. HW had originally planned to redevelop the Hilton site into a high-rise office-retail complex, yielding a gross floor area of . HW was keen to enlarge the redevelopment project by merging the hotel site with a neighbouring site to gain a greater efficiency, and commenced private talks with the Government in May 1993 with a view to acquiring the adjacent car park site, and the Beaconsfield House site from the Government. Talks were finalised in August 1995. The Executive Council approved in principle the sale of the sites in April 1995. In September 1995, the Urban Planning Committee of the Town Planning Board passed the proposals for the 9,900 m² combined site. With a plot ratio of 15, building (including the 1000-space car park) could be built. The developer agreed with the planners that most of the building would actually be weighted on the Hilton site, so much of the car park and Beaconsfield house area would be given over to park and public amenities. On 28 May 1996, Director of Lands Bob Pope disclosed that the land premium for developing the combined site was HK$3.02bn (South