Shanghai Bar District to Be Replicated in Shui On Land Push
Shui On Land Ltd., CEO Freddy Lee
Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg
Freddy Lee, chief executive officer of Shui On Land Ltd.
Freddy Lee, chief executive officer of Shui On Land Ltd. Photographer: Munshi Ahmed/Bloomberg
Shui On Land Ltd. (272), which developed the Xintiandi restaurant and bar district from century-old homes in Shanghai nine years ago, plans to replicate the concept near the city’s smaller airport and high-speed rail station.
The Hongqiao Tiandi project will include offices, shops, restaurants, a cultural center and a luxury hotel, Chief Executive Officer Freddy Lee said. The Shanghai-based company paid 3.2 billion yuan ($494 million) for the site and the 280,000-square-meter (3 million-square-foot) project is expected to be completed in two to three years.
“High-speed train stations will be a good development opportunity in future given so many successful cases in other cities” including Hong Kong, London and New York, Lee said in an interview in Singapore on June 22, declining to give more information ahead of an announcement for the project next week.
Shui On, which is controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Vincent Lo, is developing the project as the Chinese government plans to spend 2.8 trillion yuan on railways by 2015 that will boost the network to about 120,000 kilometers, according to the railway ministry. Hongqiao’s transportation hub has 1 million people passing through in a location where 75 million are within an hour’s train ride, according to the company.
The stock rose 2.5 percent to HK$3.23 at the close in Hong Kong trading, the biggest advance in more than two months.
Heaven and Earth
Xintiandi, which means New Heaven and Earth in Chinese, is a residential and commercial complex built through the redevelopment of houses dating back to the 19th and 20th centuries. The project attracted local and international retailers and restaurants, including Paulaner Brahaus and Starbucks Corp.
Shui On Land will double the size of the original Xintiandi and surrounding Taipingqiao development to 120,000 square meters within the next five to six years, said Lee, 49, who was promoted as CEO in March, replacing Lo, who remains as chairman.
The company also has Tiandi projects planned for less affluent Chinese cities such as Wuhan and Chongqing, Lee said.
Shui On Land had 11.6 million square meters of land holdings at the end of 2010 for its various developments, with about 70 percent of the sites in less affluent cities, Lee said.
--Bonnie Cao. Editors: Linus Chua, Andreea Papuc
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Bonnie Cao in Shanghai at +86-21-6104-3035 or bcao4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andreea Papuc at apapuc1@bloomberg.net
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