Hong Kong’s US$1.3 billion Northern Metropolis property JV shows CR Land and NWD’s support for city’s development, says chief
- Hong Kong project to create a new core business district that offers lifestyle choices, space for emerging industries, and a diverse range of cultural and leisure amenities
- Venture partner New World Development’s CEO says the project would unlock agricultural land value and generate significant returns for shareholders
CR Land has been actively exploring opportunities in the Northern Metropolis area since the Hong Kong government introduced the project in 2021, said Liu Xin, chairman of China Resources Land, the property unit of state-controlled conglomerate China Resources Group.
" CR Land and NWD signed a strategic partnership agreement in October 2022 with a vision to jointly explore prospects for cooperation in the development of the Northern Metropolis,” Liu said in a joint press release on December 27 following plans to co-develop two sites in Yuen Long.
The signing ceremony was attended by Chang Ying, vice-president of CR Land, Sitt Nam-hoi, executive director of NWD, Wang Songmiao, the secretary general of the Liaison Office in Hong Kong, and Wang Xiangming, chairman of China Resources Group.
According to Adrian Cheng Chi-kong, chief executive of New World Development, the project aims to create a new core business district that offers lifestyle choices, space for emerging industries, and a diverse range of cultural and leisure amenities.
Cheng said the project would unlock agricultural land value and generate significant returns for shareholders.
When completed, the project will create 1,800 residential units on a site of nearly 150,000 square feet and a total buildable gross floor area of about 720,000 square feet. Construction is scheduled to commence in 2024.
China Resources is a diversified group controlled by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), which was registered in Hong Kong in 1938 under the name Liow & Co. It was restructured and renamed China Resources Company a decade later, and is one of few state-controlled enterprises headquartered in Hong Kong. SASAC is a ministerial-level body run by China’s cabinet, managing and regulating state-owned assets and companies.
China Resources Group has business operations spanning consumer products, food and drink, power, real estate, pharmaceuticals, cement, gas and finance.
Its subsidiary, China Resources Land, founded in 1994 and listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange two years later, is focused on building houses and commercial projects in big cities.
The joint venture with New World Development represents China Resources Group’s first large-scale property investment in Hong Kong since it jointly developed Villa Esplanada Tsing Yi with Sun Hung Kai Properties in the late 1990s.
