Chapter 187 Retail Group Cooperation

A week later, Lu Gan handed over the marketing department to Jiang Fang and went to Hangzhou with a few confidants.

If Hangzhou only had one boutique hotel project in Yuhang, then the office would probably be located on the construction site there, or they would find a closer office building nearby. This time, they were planning to use Hangzhou as the center to radiate to surrounding major cities, and to build a big business that would take five to ten years, so Yuhang could not be chosen.

It is best to find an office space near the West Lake or Qiantang River.

Lu Gan has several friends in Hangzhou, and Lin Ruoyan introduced Li Wan to him, which made it much easier for him to find an office.

Lin Ruoyan looked at the three branch locations proposed by Lu Gan, but was a little worried and unable to make a decision.

The first one is the XH International Building on Wenyi Road. In the future, a large Taobao Group will be established there. The building is newly built and controls the main road to the High-tech Zone, making it convenient to go to Yuhang.

The second location is north of Qiantang River, which is a high-rise office building along the river. It was developed by the local municipal investment company. Although the exterior design is not so fashionable, it has a good location and is adjacent to the cross-river subway entrance that will be opened in the future.

The third location was simply chosen in the Binjiang District on the south bank of the river, surrounded by vacant land. However, that location seemed to be the future headquarters industrial park of Taobao and Yili in Hangzhou.

The prices in the above three locations are getting cheaper and cheaper, and you can buy an entire floor or several floors of several thousand square meters.

Lin Ruoyan had originally allocated 20 million yuan per month to the Hangzhou branch from her planned monthly spending of 100 million yuan. The first few months would be calculated separately based on actual expenses, such as purchasing office buildings and land. This was actually quite generous.

It’s not about money, the location is just great, what should I do?

Forget it, adults don’t make choices. We must buy a floor in the International Building. That building can be renovated and put into use within half a month. The decoration and property services are okay, and it has convenient transportation to Yuhang. Let the Hangzhou branch start work there first.

Buy a floor on the north side of Qiantang River. When luxury residential land becomes available along the river in the future, perhaps the real estate business, construction agency and industrial operations can be divested.

As for the Binjiang District on the other side of the river, it is already planning to develop a demonstration industrial park there, so it is more cost-effective to buy the land.

Lin Ruoyan made her decision, and Lu Gan immediately executed it. From the ranking he gave, it was clear that he actually preferred the International Building.

Lin's Real Estate Branch was opened in this way, in charge of the southern region. Although it currently only has one project each in Yicheng and Hangzhou, since the company was established and recruitment was completed, several economically developed cities in the surrounding areas have also been included in the project investigation.

When the first phase of the Yicheng project was launched in June, Lu Gan specially took his sales team to Yicheng.

Although the first phase there only sells residential houses and shops along the street, the sales office is very high-end and the property management team has already taken up their posts. They are the first batch of students in the localization of the foreign brand's properties, and their level is obviously higher than that of domestic ones.

The facades of office buildings and hotels were completed, their innovative designs featuring a rare dry-hang stone finish, rather than tiles or paint. They immediately made the surrounding older buildings look drastically different. Even the residences were painted with imitation stone. At a close distance, the dry-hang stone finish was entirely dry-hang stone, while from a distance, the imitation stone paint looked like stone itself, appearing both expensive and high-end.

In the future, these street shops and comprehensive shopping malls will be able to meet people's needs for work, residence, leisure and entertainment without leaving the community.

The design not only caters to the locals' lifestyles and habits, but also showcases the exquisite architectural design and planning achievements of first-tier cities. The meticulously designed model landscape surrounding the sales office, with its crisscrossing landscapes of water and land, invites customers to imagine strolling through the complex in the future, feeling as if they were in a large park.

While the real estate company itself doesn't consider these homes particularly high-end—after all, the units are only about 100 square meters, a slight improvement over basic needs—they create a sense of luxury for the locals. They even use the trendy term "urban complex"—a trendy term that has instilled a sense of pride in Yicheng residents.

Lü Gan also introduced some preferential policies, such as discounts for factory and enterprise employees buying homes, free property management fees for the first two years, daily raffles with cash rewards, and free management software for shop owners. In short, this combination of measures was so overwhelming that residents of this non-provincial capital city couldn't resist, and they were fooled into a buying frenzy.

After all, the price isn't really that high, especially considering the old city is mature in every way. Phase 1 is indeed affordable, with residential units priced at just 3,000 yuan per square meter and commercial properties at 5,000 yuan. However, the first phase also has limited availability, as Lü Gan designed the development to be spread out over multiple phases. Construction of the office towers and large commercial buildings is slow, so they won't be sold out until the end of the year, or early next year. Prices are gradually rising, with the average closing price exceeding 5,000 yuan.

At the time, the average construction cost, including land premium, was only 2,500 yuan, with residential units being cheaper and commercial office units more expensive. The entire project, with a construction area of ​​300,000 square meters, required an annual investment of approximately 750 million yuan, including land premium, with future returns exceeding 1.5 billion yuan.

While the returns weren't nearly as high as those from luxury housing projects in Beijing, they were still profitable. Yicheng's market was small, and while others hadn't yet built similar properties, they could sell quickly. With their own capital and no bank loans to worry about, doubling their profits in the short term was a good deal.

In reality, residential properties and street-side shops are the least likely to be sold. These days, shops are still considered to be able to support three generations, especially in the south, where businesses are more prevalent. It's common for shops to sell for thousands more than residential properties. If office buildings can't be sold, they can be held on to, and renting them out for a few years can recoup the original cost.

After much consideration, Lu Gan concluded that a comprehensive large department store was not easy to manage. If he owned it completely by himself, he would need to recruit retailers himself. If he divided the sales into one-time transactions, it might turn into a small commodity wholesale city with poor quality, which would be difficult to manage in the future.

Around this time, Yicheng authorities introduced an overseas Chinese businessman to the project. Mr. Zheng, whose ancestral home was Yicheng, had returned to his hometown to pay respects to his ancestors. He had originally intended to donate a school there, but then stumbled upon a newly launched urban complex project. This was a rare development in mainland China, closer to the typical urban developments of developed cities. In places like Nanyang and Singapore, such complexes often consist of single-story buildings, given the scarcity of land there. However, in mainland China, a building area of ​​300,000 square meters was common, and Mr. Zheng considered it a top-tier development.

The design concept is very advanced, the property management is in place, and the price is as cheap as it is overseas. The key is that it is already built and can be used after decoration.

Mr. Zheng started out in retail. He immigrated to Southeast Asia two generations ago and started with a small grocery store. Now he owns more than a dozen huge supermarkets and is considered a giant in the industry.

I witnessed the hot sales of the urban complex project and learned that the developer was the same one who sold luxury homes in Beijing. His son even bought him a house in that project in Beijing.

The building quality was impeccable, and the developer was wealthy, powerful, and trustworthy. So he asked the relevant departments in Yicheng to introduce them to the company. He planned not only to rent the commercial building but also, if possible, to acquire the entire 20,000-square-meter building.