HCP commercial units rent to be decided afresh today

KARACHI: Army authorities have called all tenants of Hockey Club of Pakistan (HCP) at army’s station headquarters on Monday (today) to make new agreements — possibly increasing their rents, informed sources revealed to ‘The News’ on Sunday.
The HCP is the only profitable entity owned by Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF). It earns a lot of money from dozens of shops, offices and godowns set up within its premises.
Since HCP is located in the jurisdiction of a cantonment area (the land for HCP was given to PHF on lease by Clifton Cantonment Board), Army can help PHF get increased rents, the sources said.
But the rents have not been revised for quite some time, the sources said.
A source said that the rent would be increased by Rs50 per square feet for the front offices, shops and godowns; Rs40 per square feet for units situated at the right and the left sides of HCP’s main entrance; and Rs30 per square feet for units inside the HCP.
Army authorities directed around 65 tenants of HCP in April 2015 to make new agreements and increase their rents according to market rates.
A high-level military officer visited the HCP in April and asked all the tenants to have new agreements.
The sources said that the officer also asked the HCP officials to hand over the details of the tenants, which HCP administration did.
The shops, offices and godowns are the only source of income of PHF, which has been facing financial crisis for a long time.
The salaries of the PHF staff are paid from this revenue besides some minor expenditure.
It seems that Army is helping PHF increase their earnings because most tenants have connections with influential people.
The sources said that HCP administration had been directed by the PHF high-ups to cooperate with the Army officials.
Meanwhile, the installation of a blue turf at HCP is likely to be delayed for a couple of months as its baseline development would take some more time, an official of HCP told this scribe.
The old green turf has been removed and due to base line renovation work the installation of the newly blue turf would take some time, he said.
Sindh government is bearing all the expenses of the installation of the blue turf. The blue turf has been imported from Holland. Besides, more than 1000 seats will be added to spectators’ area.