In an effort to find affordable space, cash-poor creative types flocked to former industrial centres like Kwun Tong, Wong Chuk Hang and Fo Tan, turning former meatpacking warehouses and textile storage facilities into low-cost studios, showrooms and boutiques.
The initiative, CashBack for Communities, is a scheme which takes money recovered through proceeds of crime legislation and invests it in activities and facilities for young people at risk of turning to a life of crime.
There are still plenty of hard-hat-only areas where construction workers are erecting bridges between buildings, turning paved areas into grassy outdoor gathering places and otherwise sprucing up and modernizing the facilities.