From Peace Avenue Veterinary Clinic to CityU VMC — The Acquisition, Expansion and Accreditation Trail, 1984 to Today

This article is part of Module 11, "Medicine / Hospitals", of the "City University of Hong Kong Wild History Archive" (Part 3 of the upper series). Cross-references: veterinary-college.md (formation of the JCC, accreditation, and the Cornell partnership), veterinary-college-2.md (current facilities at the VMC and the diagnostic laboratory), vmc-acquisition-peace-avenue.md (the VMC's operating entity, fees, and the Sham Shui Po Trinity Towers siting controversy — this article is about "how it got there"; the companion piece is about "how it runs now").

In one sentence: The CityU Veterinary Medical Centre (VMC) began life as the Peace Avenue Veterinary Clinic (PAVC), Hong Kong's first clinic founded by a locally trained veterinarian, established in 1984^※; CityU acquired it outright on 1 September 2016^※, and three years later relocated and expanded it to more than 33,000 square feet^※, renaming it the VMC — one of the largest veterinary centres in Southeast Asia and the teaching hospital for Hong Kong's only veterinary school.

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# 1. Before the Acquisition: What Was the Peace Avenue Veterinary Clinic (PAVC)?

According to the VMC's official history timeline^※, the Peace Avenue Veterinary Clinic (PAVC) was founded in 1984 — the first veterinary clinic in Hong Kong established by a locally trained veterinarian. Its founder was Dr. Phillip C.K. Mak. Per Dr. Mak's own profile^※, he earned his Bachelor of Veterinary Science (BVSc) at the University of Sydney in 1983, completed a Master of Veterinary Studies (MVS) in veterinary surgery at Murdoch University in 1996, and returned to Hong Kong in 1984 to open the clinic — among the first locally trained veterinarians to set up practice in the city.

In the context of Hong Kong's veterinary history, the "first clinic founded by a locally trained vet" matters more than it might sound. Before the 1980s, veterinary services in Hong Kong were almost entirely dominated by foreign-trained expatriate vets; PAVC, founded by a locally bred veterinarian in Mak, marked the first step in the localisation of the profession. Some local media have dubbed it the "Hong Kong Sanatorium" of the pet-care world — a measure of its standing in the field.

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# 2. Three Key Milestones for PAVC (2001–2008)

Before CityU came along, PAVC went through three transformative upgrades that turned it from a neighbourhood clinic into a referral-level specialist centre.

The 2004 introduction of a pet MRI was an industry first — at a time when even human hospitals in Hong Kong had relatively limited MRI capacity, PAVC was already offering neurological imaging for cats and dogs. By the 2008 move to an 18,000-square-foot premises in Homantin, the VMC's official timeline described it as a "fully equipped clinic situated on Liberty Road in the Homantin area in Kowloon, was opened with facilities comparable to that of the best veterinary hospital in the world" — with the world's best veterinary hospitals as the benchmark.

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# 3. Why CityU? Where PAVC and CityU's Veterinary School Ambitions Converged

Between 2009 and 2014, the connection between CityU and PAVC predated the formal acquisition.

According to CityU's 2010 news release^※, as early as February 2010, CityU President Professor Way Kuo was invited to speak at PAVC's anniversary dinner — and it was Dr. Phillip C.K. Mak, PAVC's founder, who, having learned of CityU's intention to establish a veterinary school, took the initiative to invite Kuo to share his vision. The bond between the two was grounded both in shared values (a commitment to "training local veterinarians") and in strategic complementarity: CityU brought academic resources and accreditation ambitions; PAVC brought thirty years of clinical experience and industry reputation.

In 2014, CityU formally established the School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) in partnership with Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine^※ — later renamed the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences (JCC; see veterinary-college.md for details). International accreditation of a veterinary undergraduate programme makes it mandatory for students to complete substantial clinical rotations in a real clinical environment, and building a teaching hospital of scale is a precondition for accreditation compliance. Acquiring an operating clinic with thirty years of reputation in Hong Kong and a mature specialist system was faster and more logical than building from scratch.

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# 4. 1 September 2016: CityU Takes Full Ownership

According to the official CityU press release (31 August 2016)^※, CityU completed its full acquisition of PAVC on 1 September 2016, and the clinic was immediately renamed the "CityU Peace Avenue Veterinary Clinic (CityU PAVC)".

CityU President Professor Way Kuo was quoted in the release:

"The prestigious Peace Avenue Veterinary Clinic has an impressive history of quality animal care service. The Clinic will play a significant role in the development of SVM."

The dean of the veterinary school at the time, Professor Michael Reichel, added:

"Exciting new and cutting edge specialties will be added in phases in response to the dramatic changes taking place in veterinary medicine."

The release explicitly stated that the acquired clinic would operate on the teaching-hospital model of leading veterinary schools in Australia and the United States — balancing "educational excellence" with "quality animal care service". At that moment, PAVC shifted from an independent specialist clinic to the rudimentary form of a university-affiliated teaching hospital.

At the time of acquisition, the clinic remained at its Liberty Road, Homantin location (the 18,000-square-foot premises from the 2008 expansion), continuing to serve the public under the "CityU PAVC" banner while taking in veterinary students for clinical learning. This "transition period" lasted roughly two and a half years, until the new Sham Shui Po site opened in 2019.

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# 5. 3 April 2019: Relocation and Expansion, from PAVC to VMC

From 18,000 square feet in Homantin to 33,000 square feet in Sham Shui Po — nearly a doubling in size.

According to the CityU opening announcement (28 March 2019)^※, the CityU Veterinary Medical Centre (CityU VMC) officially opened on 3 April 2019; the opening ceremony was held earlier, on 27 March, with more than 50 guests in attendance, including Council members, Legislative Council members, and senior CityU administrators. The old Homantin site saw its last day of service on 30 March 2019^※, and the new Sham Shui Po site opened on 3 April — with virtually zero gap in service.

The new site occupies the ground floor to the 2nd floor of Trinity Towers, 339 Lai Chi Kok Road, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon, between Yen Chow Street and Kweilin Street — and remains the VMC's current location. (The estate's formal Chinese name is 丰匯; casual usage and some secondary accounts occasionally render it as "三达广场". This article follows the VMC official website^※ and the Trinity Towers Wikipedia entry; for the siting controversy, see the companion piece vmc-acquisition-peace-avenue.md.)

At the ceremony, President Kuo characterised the VMC with the phrase "ten years to forge a sword":

"It takes ten years to forge a sword. I'm proud of our team, as the Centre is just like a sharp sword."

The "ten years" here counts from 2009, when CityU first made contact with Cornell University and began planning the veterinary school.

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# 6. From PAVC to VMC: What Was Expanded?

The relocation was not just a change of address; it was a comprehensive upgrade. Here is a comparison of the key parameters between the 2008 Homantin site and the 2019 Sham Shui Po VMC:

One of the direct triggers for the move was the expiry of the lease on the old Homantin site — according to an HK01 report^※, the then veterinary director Jonathan Speelman said the old site lacked "space to install more equipment and diagnostic instruments", and the lease expiry provided the window for expansion. CityU, for its part, had already planned ahead — choosing Trinity Towers and securing connected space across three floors was deliberate. This siting later sparked a controversy among Sham Shui Po residents over the use of the mall; see the companion piece vmc-acquisition-peace-avenue.md.

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# 7. The Teaching-Hospital Rationale: Why "Acquire + Expand" Is Indispensable in Veterinary Education

The flagship programme of CityU's veterinary college (JCC) — the six-year Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (BVM) — received dual accreditation in 2023 from AVBC (the Australasian Veterinary Boards Council) and RCVS (the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons)^※, making it the first dually accredited veterinary programme in Asia. Both accrediting bodies impose hard requirements on clinical teaching: students must complete a substantial volume of case rotations in a real clinical environment and demonstrate "Day One Competences" — the ability to practise independently upon graduation.

Without a teaching hospital of sufficient scale and specialist depth, the BVM programme cannot meet those standards. The timeline of CityU's 2016 acquisition of PAVC and its 2019 expansion into the VMC tracks the development of the BVM programme remarkably closely:

• September 2016: Acquisition of PAVC → the BVM programme was approved the same year, with admissions announced from September 2016^※.
• 2017: First cohort of BVM students enrolled, entering the early stages of the programme.
• April 2019: VMC opened → aligned with the window when BVM students would enter their clinical years.
• 2023: First BVM cohort graduated; dual accreditation arrived in tandem.

The VMC's caseload feeds back into the clinical volume and case diversity the accreditation demands. In volume, the VMC sees around 3,500 cases per month^※ (per the VMC's own website); in depth, its 9 operating theatres, 64-slice CT, 1.5T MRI and Hong Kong's first animal ICU expose students to complex cases they would never encounter in a small community clinic.

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# 8. What the Acquisition Trail Means Historically: How a Clinic Became an Institutional Asset

When PAVC was founded, it was simply an ordinary pet clinic on Peace Avenue in Mong Kok. That it eventually became the foundation of a CityU teaching hospital rests on several converging factors:

A legacy of technical firsts. The 2004 introduction of the pet MRI put PAVC roughly a decade ahead of its peers technologically; by the time of the acquisition, its imaging and specialist systems had real depth, so CityU did not have to build from zero.

A tradition of training. Having been designated a training centre by the Veterinary Surgeons Board in 2001 meant PAVC already had a culture of nurturing new veterinarians — a close fit with CityU's "teaching hospital" ambitions, with a low risk of cultural friction.

Early contact between the founder and CityU. It was Dr. Phillip C.K. Mak who proactively reached out to President Kuo, connecting PAVC's clinical track record with CityU's academic aspirations — a relationship that predated the formal acquisition by some six years.

Continuity of geography and brand. The post-acquisition name "CityU Peace Avenue Veterinary Clinic (CityU PAVC)" kept the "Peace Avenue" reference — a brand already highly recognised among Hong Kong pet owners, and retaining part of it helped sustain client trust. By the time it was renamed the VMC in 2019, the clinic had been operating under the CityU banner for three years, so the new brand landed naturally.

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# 9. What Professional Accreditations Does the VMC Hold Now?

The acquisition and expansion turned PAVC into one of the largest veterinary centres around, but "big" does not automatically mean "well regarded professionally" — a point neither the acquisition coverage nor the relocation reports touched on. For that, you have to look at the VMC's own accreditation record in recent years.

According to the VMC's official facility tour page^※, the centre has earned Gold-level "Cat Friendly Clinic" certification from the International Society of Feline Medicine (ISFM) — the highest tier in the ISFM scheme, requiring compliance with more than 80 assessment criteria, including separating cats and dogs in waiting areas and wards, using pheromone sprays to ease waiting-room anxiety, and using treats and toys to reduce feline stress during examinations. The same page notes that the centre's clinical team includes Fear Free Certified Professionals. Fear Free is a behavioural-science certification system for veterinary practice originating in the United States, training staff to reduce fear, anxiety and stress in animals during history-taking, handling, injections and other procedures.

These two certifications target not equipment or floor area but the clinical process itself — in other words, the VMC has left its mark not just on "we can afford the most expensive CT and MRI" but also on details like "how we handle a cat that is afraid of strangers." For a hospital that also carries a teaching mission, such behavioural certifications form part of BVM students' clinical training: in their rotations, students encounter not only diagnostic pathways for cases but also this set of "reduce animal stress" operational protocols.

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# 10. The Jockey Club One Health Tower: How Far Along Is the JCC's Permanent Home?

The VMC was the first piece of CityU's veterinary landscape to land, but it was never the endpoint — the real "headquarters" is the still-under-construction Jockey Club One Health Tower. According to the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust's community footprint page^※, the tower is supported by a HK$500 million donation from the Charities Trust. It will stand 15 storeys with a total floor area exceeding 24,000 square metres, and will serve as the permanent home of the JCC, housing teaching and research facilities, a multi-purpose auditorium with more than 1,600 seats, and embodying the "One Health" concept — "the health of humans, animals and the shared environment are interconnected". Originally slated for completion in 2022–2023, the project has seen delays; per the same page, the main structure is expected to be completed by the end of 2025. As of July 2026, this archive has found no officially announced opening or commissioning date, so the tower is recorded as under construction.

Once the One Health Tower is complete, the JCC's teaching and research focus is expected to shift in part from dispersed venues such as the VMC and the diagnostic laboratory to this dedicated building — but based on the existing material in veterinary-college.md and veterinary-college-2.md, the VMC's role as a publicly bookable teaching hospital for clinical-year rotations is expected to remain unaffected. The tower adds college-level teaching and research space; it does not replace the Sham Shui Po hospital.

Meanwhile, the BVM programme itself has been adding new achievements in recent years. According to CityU's official November 2025 press release^※, the BVM broke into the top 100 globally in veterinary science in the 2025 QS World University Rankings by Subject; the same year brought in its most international cohort ever, with students hailing from Germany, Italy, South Africa, Jordan, Malaysia, South Korea, Indonesia, mainland China (including Shanghai) and Macau. Among the new intake, a Jordanian student entered with a perfect IB score of 45, and a local student was admitted with six 5** grades in the DSE. The programme remains the only veterinary degree in Hong Kong — and the only one in Asia — to hold dual AVBC and RCVS accreditation (for accreditation details, see veterinary-college.md).

This "accreditation — ranking — internationalisation" curve is not separate from the VMC's history of expansion from a Peace Avenue clinic. Without a teaching hospital of sufficient scale and specialist depth supplying the clinical caseload, the BVM could not sustain its accreditation, let alone enter the QS top 100 or attract international students.

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# 11. Key Timeline at a Glance

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