Fangleng Group, an international real estate developer, sells its first commercial project in China.

Recently, the international real estate developer Fenglong Group announced that one of its subsidiaries has signed a contract to sell the retail and office portions of Fenglong City Center in Suzhou Industrial Park. This project, the first commercial development by Fenglong Group in China, has been facing challenges due to the continuous impact of the pandemic, which might be one of the reasons behind the decision to sell.

According to a report by Guanqiang Net, Urban Development Limited Company (referred to as “Urban Development Company”) announced on March 3 that they have signed a contract to sell the retail and office portions of Fenglong City Center in Suzhou Industrial Park, with the transaction expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2025.

The Fenglong City Center being sold is located in Suzhou Industrial Park and is one of the key assets in China for Urban Development Company. The buyer is a consortium formed by Jiangsu State-owned Enterprise Xinyuan Holdings Group and Yuanlian Fund.

It is reported that the successful sale of this asset has brought back at least 600 million new dollars (approximately 3.2 billion yuan) in funds for Urban Development Company.

Urban Development Company operates in real estate and hotel businesses globally and became a subsidiary of Fenglong Group in 1972. Fenglong Group is the largest real estate and hotel investment developer and a benchmark enterprise in Singapore.

The retail portion of the aforementioned sale is Suzhou Fenglong Times Square (referred to as “Suzhou Fenglong Times Square”), which opened on June 16, 2018, and was the first commercial project built by Fenglong Group in China.

According to a post by NetEase on March 7, the project is located at 788 Zhonguan Road, Suzhou Industrial Park (east side of Jinji Lake Ferris Wheel Park), adjacent to Line 1 Times Square Station of Suzhou Metro, and is a 60,000 square meters flagship commercial component of Suzhou Fenglong City Center complex.

During its opening phase, the project attracted hundreds of brands including Starbucks, Toys “R” Us, Xiao Long Kan Hot Pot, KFC, Adidas, INXX, balabala, Ryan English, and Formosa. Suzhou Fenglong Times Square opened in mid-2018 and has been operational for less than 7 years, with approximately half of that time being during the pandemic, impacting consumer stickiness to the mall, especially during the crucial “business nurturing period”. Simultaneously, the construction of Suzhou Metro Line 6 and Line 8 has affected the accessibility of the mall.