As China's commercial real estate development enters the stock era, most cities and commercial individuals have begun to consciously renew themselves.
Tracing the past of some leading commercial operators, there seem to be more or less one or two shareable urban renewal cases in their development trajectories, which are like a mirror reflecting the city.
In fact, instead of entering the city with a new look and "creating" a commercial body with a commanding attitude, a flagship urban renewal project has already had a significance beyond business in terms of urban cultural preservation and spiritual shaping.
Today, from the perspective of new project observation, we have found an operator with a distinctive personality -
They have not only created city-level commercial landmarks in some small and medium-sized cities, but also the new projects give people the impression of different forms and diverse styles, almost using a series of non-standard projects to form an urban renewal team.
This is Hengtai Commercial, which has been focusing on customized asset-light projects for a long time and is upgrading the new product of "Super Hengtai City".
In fact, CRR has already paid attention to Hengtai Commercial last year, and an article "Gemini Hengtai City" at that time has attracted the attention of many readers, and the project has also refreshed our perception of business in lower-tier cities.
That's why every city deserves to be renewed.
From Ningbo Binhai to the whole country, Hengtai Commercial is moving towards the next outlet.
A "Brand Friend"
The self-precipitation of a renewer
In the context of the general economic downturn, the survival of enterprises is increasing.
The growth of commercial real estate has plummeted, and how to revitalize the stock of assets is becoming a difficult problem between urban planners and different projects.
And the "Hengtai Commercial" mentioned in this article is the one that focuses on "business renewal" among the current mainstream business management companies.
Standing at this critical juncture in 2023, a "Gathering of Old Friends" related to Hengtai's new business strategy, about "review" and "outlook" - Hengtai Friends - Strategic Brand Private Sharing Meeting was held in Ninghai, Ningbo on June 28.
*Ninghai Lianghuang Mountain Xia Keyuan
Perhaps many people have not been in contact with Hengtai Business before, but tracing its development history, TA is an out-and-out veteran commercial management enterprise, which belongs to Ningbo Pacific Hengye Holding Group.
From the beginning of the 90s of the last century (the period when most mainland commercial management companies were in the ascendancy) to Ningbo, a popular city for urban renewal today, Hengtai Commercial has also experienced the evolution of Chinese supermarkets, department stores and shopping malls.
Since 2015, in order to comply with the general trend of business development and establish the competitiveness of business management, Hengtai Commercial has gradually started to transform, focusing on the development of asset-light commercial operation sector, and taking asset-light output as the company's main development strategy.
You must know that at a time when most mainstream operators are still following the "light and heavy" model, it takes great courage for a company like Hengtai Commercial to "focus on light assets as its main business" early on.
Today, Hengtai Commercial has accumulated 50+ projects with a management area of more than 400,0000m², and has been ranked among the top 10 commercial real estate operators in China for many consecutive years.
If heavy positions and asset-light projects are the courage of Hengtai Commercial, then adopting the "bottom-up" strategy of developing from low-tier cities to high-tier cities is another major breakthrough.
From East China to the whole country, Hengtai Commercial has been deeply cultivated in Zhejiang, Anhui, Shandong, Hubei and other neighboring provinces in East China, and has realized the expansion of Yinchuan, Jingmen, Quzhou, Zibo and other cities in 2023.
From the perspective of perception, although this is very different from the "top-down" development model of traditional commercial operators, it has laid a solid foundation for Hengtai Commercial to understand the character of diversified cities, and it is also an important advantage for it to vigorously develop asset-light.
From the perspective of the types of projects managed and output, a large proportion of the projects in these lower-tier cities are state-owned assets, and a large number of them have high-quality urban locations, and even occupy the core landmark positions of the cities.
For these old projects with characteristics that have been dusted by urban development, if they do not improve their quality, give full play to their characteristics, and preserve and regain the memory of the city, they will ignore the meaning of renewal.
As a result, the important task of "customized operator" focusing on helping small cities shine fell on the shoulders of Hengtai Commercial——
Because of its bottom-up development model, Hengtai Commercial's flexible and changeable operational capabilities are actually not well recognized by the industry, and we will be surprised when we observe them; However, the recognition of these landmark projects proves that Hengtai Commercial's business logic is in place in a different way and accurately.
At this key strategic private meeting, Hengtai Commercial announced that it would upgrade its strategy for the next five years for the strategic cooperation brands along the way.
In the next five years, we will strategically position ourselves as an "expert in customized business operations". Emphasize the non-standard attributes that must be implemented in the transformation of existing projects, and highlight the professionalism of the operation of different renewal projects.
First of all, give full play to the superior products. Although the core of urban renewal projects is tailored to local conditions and varies from project to project, business innovation is bound to move towards a standard path after learning from experience.
At the meeting, Hengtai Commercial announced that it would upgrade the original commercial product line "Hengtai City" to "Super Hengtai City".
Second, strengthen the advantageous areas. Upgrade the business ecology of small and medium-sized cities, increase resource investment in Zhejiang, Anhui, Shandong, Hubei and other regions, and gradually expand the strategic deployment to high-tier cities with the experience of urban landmark renewal.
In 2024, Hengtai Commercial has actually spanned more than 30 years, and on the road of urban renewal, it will explore the local characteristics of the city, so that every city is worth renewing.
A city with a very different personality
Surprising update practices
Focusing on the four characteristic operation sections of shopping malls, characteristic blocks, city markets and neighborhood centers, Hengtai Commercial is gradually getting better.
Among them, there is naturally Zaozhuang Gemini Hengtai City, a commercial project that has been opened in 2022, and the focus is that TA not only brings a new commercial brand and scene appearance of the city;
What's more, this is a complete and meaningful renewal of the city's landmark.
The project is located in the core of Zaozhuang's political and cultural center, and is jointly operated by Lunan Company and Hengtai Commercial; The commercial complex of about 370,000 square meters, including 130,000 square meters of commercial area, is also a giant worth mentioning in high-tier cities. The two landmark twin towers with a height of 259 meters in the project have become the tallest buildings in Zaozhuang and even the entire southwest and northern Jiangsu regions after they were opened.
Standing at a new demarcation point, the transition from "Hengtai City" to "Super Hengtai City" is not only an upgrade of the product line name "Unclear Force", but also an update of the core of the product model.
The "S" in the title of the case (which stands for super, style, and surprise) represents three dimensions of innovation: guided by "super operation", integrating "super space" and "super format".
According to this concept, a set of combination equations of innovative models is condensed, so that different types of non-standard solutions have relatively standard trading methods.
That is, on the basic templates of the "3" standard super youth center, super child-friendly center and super food center, the "X" of high-end formats and spaces is added, and the "1" forward-looking innovative operation, such as characteristic city market, urban cultural creativity, urban KOL system, etc., so as to realize the new vitality of the project while ruminating the local culture.
From the following representative projects, we may be able to get a clearer understanding of the above concepts.
1. Shandong Weihai Super Hengtai City
*Renderings of Shandong Weihai Super Hengtai City project
Weihai, with its characteristic coastal landscape, is the birthplace of China's first navy in modern times, the "Beiyang Naval Division", and is also one of the first coastal open cities in China.
There are more than 10 important wharves in the city, among which Weihai Port, which was built in 1918, is the first commercial wharf of Weihai Acropolis, after a hundred years of vicissitudes, Weihai Port was relocated to a new site in 2013, and the original land was idle.
Under the opportunity of urban renewal, how to retain the memory of the wharf city and give full play to the commercial benefits of the landmark area has become a problem that needs to be deeply considered by the project - the Weihai Super Hengtai City project came into being, which is jointly operated by Hengtai Commercial and Weihai Urban Investment.
*Renderings of the waterfront scene of Weihai Super Hengtai City, Shandong
The project is located at the intersection of the east-west axis from Weihai Huancuilou to Liugong Island and the north-south axis of urban development, which is a core area of Weihai Old Town, with passenger flow radiating to the whole city.
In the process of construction, in order to solve the contradiction between the public attributes and economic benefits of the project, the project attracts tourists with the modern characteristic space of science and technology e-sports hall and digital aquarium, and takes into account the urban public function while innovating business; While realizing the positioning of the urban living room, it also builds a "bridge between the sea and the land".
*Renderings of Shandong Weihai Super Hengtai City project
2. Nanhu Super Hengtai City, Quzhou, Zhejiang
*Renderings of the façade of Quzhou Nanhu Super Hengtai City project
The original site of Quzhou Nanhu Super Hengtai City was originally the old railway station of Quzhou, carrying the memories of several generations of old Quzhou people.
The project is jointly operated by Hengtai Commercial and Quzhou Tourism Investment Platform, and is also one of the key projects of Quzhou's "Ten Special Projects" for urban development, with a total investment of 1.8 billion yuan and a total construction area of about 167,000 square meters.
Similar to the core of the Weihai project, the project integrates public space and commercial scenes without boundaries, and becomes an urban commercial complex that integrates the functions of an urban convention and exhibition center, a tourism distribution center, and a digital museum.
*Interior renderings of Quzhou Nanhu Super Hengtai City project
The unique architectural highlights of this project can be seen at a glance from the renderings. The design of the building is inspired by the natural stone beams on Quzhou's well-known cultural attraction "Lanke Mountain", and uses Quzhou's "Liangzi Culture"* to refine the image of Quzhou's landscape and Southern Confucian culture, which will create a new generation of Quzhou's urban spiritual landmark.
*Quzhou Liangzi Culture: The "Chess Piece Culture" represented by Langkeshan, which has the name of the Immortal Land of Go, and the "Confucius Culture" represented by the Confucian Nanzong Family Temple, the "Southern Confucian Holy Land".
*The rooftops and flat land are intimately connected to people, and the parks and green spaces are all pitched, which is expected to comprehensively enhance the sense of business experience in Quzhou
It not only has the spiritual representativeness, but also has the advantages of the natural scene of commerce, and the appearance and content can be called upgraded, which will really bring the commercial experience of the whole customer layer and unbounded park to Quzhou consumers.
3. Zhejiang Jinhua Wuzhou Heart Super Hengtai City
Jinhua Wuzhou Heart Super Hengtai City is jointly operated by Hengtai Commercial and Jinhua Urban Investment Platform, and is positioned as a "New Town Living Room x 24H Central Green Axis Vitality Area", which is also a park business with the theme of unbounded park.
*Renderings of Jinhua Wuzhou Heart Super Hengtai City project
With the commercial in the park as the canvas, the commercial building is designed with a cascading façade setback, so that the shopping mall, the commercial block and the park can coexist naturally, and will introduce leisure dining and experience formats that are suitable for the scene, supplemented by external furnishings and green plants, so that the leisure destination attribute of the commercial will be enhanced.
*Renderings of Jinhua Wuzhou Heart Super Hengtai City project
In addition to the above-mentioned super Hengtai City, Shandong Zibo Mingfa Super Hengtai City, Anhui Shouzhou Super Hengtai City and other projects are also in preparation.
Among them, Shouzhou Super Hengtai City is closer to the one-stop living center of residents: the project is transformed from a building materials block, with a total volume of 120,000 square meters, ranking first in the city.
The project not only plans a number of scarce sports spaces such as promenades and ball courts, but also creates unique parent-child interaction scenes such as the "Hengtai Moon Bear" IP and the waterscape dry spray, so as to get close to and upgrade public life and achieve deep empathy with the city.
*Renderings of Shouzhou Super Hengtai City
Have you found that although these projects are located in different cities, they are all "heart" projects in the city, and after Hengtai Commercial took over, there are signs of new concepts and contents:
Compared with traditional urban renewal projects, these projects have relatively stable investment attraction and operational capabilities with the support of professional business management teams.
Compared with the mature standard product line, these projects are based on the urban memory to be updated and the relatively "non-standard" shell, retaining extremely strong territorial characteristics.
In addition, Hengtai Commercial also has a good performance in the operation of blocks and markets, and it is worthy of recognition for the overall situation, people's livelihood and urban development on this dilapidated and new commercial track.
The wind has risen, and it is going away
In the renewal practice of Hengtai Commercial, there are not only complex projects with a commercial area of 100,000 square meters like the above-mentioned projects, but also the highly regarded "urban micro-renewal".
For example, the Ningbo Water Street Commercial Plaza project, jointly built by Yincheng Group and Hengtai Commercial, won the title of "Zhejiang High-quality Pedestrian Street" in 2023.
The scene is beautiful, full of the expressiveness of the integration of city and nature.
Highlights of the business format: It has chain brands such as Manner, M stand, Tim Hortons, Crust, Domino's, Heytea and Yeepy, and condenses and introduces special art experience formats such as ACE Art Center, Jiuyue Art, Cool Talk Show Theater, and Ningbo Theater Study Center.
The operation has content: the three city-level young IP "Yinzhou Night", "Ningbo Jazz Life Festival", "NCB Good Things" and other self-created market activities have become a new force that cannot be ignored in Ningbo.
Perhaps readers feel the same way as me, based on Ningbo, a city full of internal vitality and commercial expectations, Hengtai Commercial has learned a set of project renewal rules that complement the creation of public space and innovative commercial content.
In the years of iteration of East China Commerce, Hengtai Commercial has synchronized the renewal of the city with self-renewal, and finally has some eye-catching practical results.
At this opportune time, urban renewal is becoming the mainstream of the times.
On May 31, 2024, the Ministry of Finance released the "Announcement of the Evaluation Results of the 2024 Urban Renewal Actions" on its website, which will support the implementation of urban renewal actions in some cities from 2024 onwards.
Urban renewal initiatives focused on large cities have actually received a nationwide response.
With urban planners as the leading force in renewal, there will be more and more "opinion leaders" like Hengtai Commercial, whose ideas and thinking are more detailed——
They will bring decades of self-development and urban observation to practice, and contribute some "standard answers" about urban renewal and non-standard renewal;
Under the renewal mechanism of a more virtuous cycle, Hengtai Commercial will also meet the wind and travel in a healthy and stable direction.