As it launches its core-city-cluster strategy, CapitaLand China has signed a memorandum of understanding that could lead to it investing in an integrated development in Wuhan.
Signed with the district government of Wuchang, one of three key areas of the Hubei provincial capital, the MoU sets out general principles of collaboration for developing a prime site in Wuchang.
CapitaLand says the potential scale of the proposed integrated development for the site is expected to surpass all its present properties in central China.
“As the major transport and commercial hub in central China with strong economic fundamentals, Wuhan is a high-growth city set to benefit further from China’s Belt and Road Initiative,” says CapitaLand president/group CEO Lim Ming Yan.
He says the city’s rapid urbanisation has created a high demand for quality real-estate products and services, particularly integrated developments that meet aspirations of intertwined living, working and playing in one central location.
Largest presence
CapitaLand China CEO Lucas Loh says the group has a larger portfolio of integrated developments than any foreign developer in China.
CapitaLand already has a foot in the door in Wuhan with the opening last April of CapitaMall Westgate in the Hankou area. Comprising a mall, two office towers and one Soho block, it is the group’s fifth-largest integrated development in China. It opened with a committed occupancy of about 93 per cent, with the mall drawing more than 435,000 shoppers in its first four days.
CapitaLand also owns and manages a second integrated development in the Hankou area, CapitaMall Wusheng, plus two other, CapitaMall 1818 in Wuchang and CapitaMall Minzhongleyuan in Hankou.
Central China’s largest city, Wuhan has a population of about 12 million people. Multinational corporations like Citroen, Foxconn, Hewlett-Packard, Honda, Nissan, Philips and Siemens are all established there, while it is home to local companies such as Dongfeng Motor, FiberHome Technologies Group, and Wuhan Iron and Steel.
