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Farglory and Taipei City reach Taipei Dome accord

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Farglory and Taipei City reach Taipei Dome accord

Farglory and city reach Taipei Dome accord

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Farglory Group chief Chao Teng-hsiung met Taipei City Deputy Mayor Teng Chia-chi Thursday afternoon, and both men reached an agreement on the next step for the controversial Taipei Dome, the latter said.
The war of words between the developer and the city government had escalated again over the last few days since the High Administrative Court ruled July 21 that a partial resumption of work on the project should be allowed to safeguard its safety.
Farglory had demanded a complete resumption of work on the 40,000-seat mixed sports-commercial complex, while the city first wanted safety changes implemented. Mayor Ko Wen-je ordered work halted on May 20 last year, and since then speculation has grown about the Taipei Dome’s fate, which could include total demolition.
After speaking with Chao and his delegation at the Taipei City Government for 90 minutes Thursday, Teng said the developer had accepted the city’s seven public safety principles for the complex, though it wanted them to be screened by a neutral third party.
Both sides still held different views about the number of people who could safely be contained inside the complex, with previous figures naming 140,000 from Farglory and 90,000 mentioned as the maximum limit according to the city government. There have been concerns that if too many people were present, evacuation during a disaster could be difficult.
Chao told reporters when he left Thursday’s talks that he was willing to hold a drill to show the city government how safety would work based on the number of people inside the complex.
The tycoon also said he had asked Teng to arrange a meeting with the mayor. Ever since Ko took office in December 2014, the two men have been pictured by the media as bitter enemies.
Chao said the issue of ending Farglory’s Taipei Dome contract had not come up at his meeting with Teng, since it was a rather “unhappy subject.” Media reports have suggested that if the relationship ends in divorce, several major business groups would be interested in taking over the nearly completed Taipei Dome project.