Chapter 99 University Town Effect
Lin Ruoyan quickly asked her subordinates to formulate the relevant cooperation plan for the school project, and introduced Thomas and others to go to the CY District Committee to meet with the senior management of the Education Bureau and the district leaders. She took out a neat and detailed plan and presented it one by one. From enrollment, teachers to school building construction, all aspects were not comparable to ordinary schools. It was quite popular, no less than the shock she brought to the committee after she bought the land for 80 million.
They originally thought that the educational land that could only be sold required a combination of big companies, but now an internationally renowned education group has been introduced. Someone is building the building and someone is recruiting students. They will be able to recruit enough places this year and will use the old campus to temporarily accommodate students. The new campus will be officially opened at the beginning of next year. This will definitely become a new highlight of the district.
Someone from District X came back from a meeting in the city and heard that District CY had introduced an internationally renowned education group and would open an international school from elementary school to high school in the future. Upon further inquiry, he found out that it was Lin Ruoyan who brought them together, and he felt a little unbalanced.
Lin Ruoyan had been invited to the Greater X District, renting only two buildings to work on the biopharmaceutical base prototype. Wasn't that a bit of a waste of talent? District leaders were once again considering whether to have Lin's Real Estate or Lin's Group invest in more projects.
The school is pretty good. Such a famous international school can also be located in the x district. Beijing is so big, and the x district has vast land and abundant resources. As long as the school is willing to come, it can choose any place it wants. It will definitely be bigger than the one in the cy district.
After listening for a while, Lin Ruoyan finally understood that District X wanted her to do something high-end. Since the district also realized the power of education, she could now talk about the concept of university town in detail, which she had mentioned to Ms. Xiang and others at the farm house before.
She would not say at this time that international education groups attach great importance to local economic development when choosing school locations. Even if they are all first-tier cities, there are specific criteria for choosing which district.
The reason why she was so confident about the educational land in CY District was actually because CY District had the CBD and the Olympic project. These were windows of opening up to the outside world that the city had focused on building. In the next ten years, international schools would gather there.
The Greater X District won't have an international airport for nearly twenty years. The biopharmaceutical industry base is also full of R&D and factories. The atmosphere of large corporate headquarters is much less attractive than that of established CBDs, and high-end residential areas are also relatively scarce. So, she could mention that Thomas might visit Greater X District for her sake, but he might not be able to afford a fully-fledged international school. Opening an international kindergarten would be easy, though.
"Since the district is also interested in the International Education Group, I'll talk to them and come over to the district to investigate someday." Lin Ruoyan wouldn't refuse. Thomas was a shrewd person. Even if he didn't build a university, building good relationships with the leaders in the Beijing district would be a rare opportunity. Now that Lin Ruoyan had given him the opportunity, how could he refuse? He would do whatever was necessary to save face.
"As for the advantages of the Greater X District, you all know them better than I do. The district is vast, while some of the city's university campuses are pitifully small. I heard that many of the school buildings were built in the 1950s and 1960s, or before the founding of the People's Republic of China. They've long exceeded their normal service life and have become dilapidated."
As Lin Ruoyan spoke, the minds of everyone present were also opened up.
International schools are nothing more than primary and secondary schools. Of course, the institutions of higher learning, such as those universities in the city, are the ones that can generate economic benefits more quickly.
There are some key universities that the state is willing to allocate new places to free of charge, and they may move to the upwind and upwater areas in the north. However, there are many more universities that are not of such a high level and still have the embarrassment of insufficient school buildings.
Lin Ruoyan didn't need to remind them about the discussion going forward. These were people who had worked their way up from the grassroots level, and many of them were graduates of the city's universities. With a little connection and meeting the heads of the universities, it wouldn't be difficult to discuss the new campus.
The problem was that the district's top leader gave a look, and someone from the District Education Bureau spoke up, "Mr. Lin, it's true that a university relocation would bring abundant manpower to the district, and it would definitely aid in the development of a biomedical base. However, the university campus can't be sold, and even if a long-term lease could be negotiated, the school wouldn't be able to offer much."
The implication is, how can the district make a lot of money?
This question from the Education Bureau was indeed a bit awkward, but Lin Ruoyan smiled and said, "We haven't discussed it with the university yet. They may have other districts to consider. If District X wants to attract a well-known university campus, they will definitely have to make concessions on land use. However, if they can really bring together several institutions of higher learning, or a well-known middle school or vocational high school, and everyone works together to build a new campus, creating a certain scale effect, then the value of the land around the university town will definitely rise, and it will definitely not be lower than that along the subway line."
Lin Ruoyan's words woke the dreamer up.
During the era of the book, Beijing was just beginning to expand beyond its Fifth and Sixth Ring Roads, and the Greater X District was considered a relatively peripheral area. There were planned subway lines, and they were under construction, but most of them were still theoretical. Therefore, land along the subway lines was considered a good investment, as everyone was betting on the future.
At this time, no one had carefully considered how much benefit the new university town could bring to land finance.
"The land used in university towns doesn't make money in itself. In order to attract good universities, we may even lose money by investing money in them. But the surrounding areas of university towns are different..." Lin Ruoyan casually talked about the grand occasion of suburban university towns she had seen in the real world.
Unlike high school students, college students have more freedom and are more willing to try various social experiences. Some work part-time simply to earn tuition and living expenses, while others have been dreaming of starting their own business. Still others, seeking comfort and unwillingness to live in crowded dormitories, choose to rent an apartment within walking distance of campus.
Students arrive in batches every four or five years, just like crops, one crop after another. As long as there are enough opportunities in the district, they will certainly be retained. If commercial, office, and residential buildings are built near the university town, opportunities can be created nearby, allowing for cheaper hiring of high-quality labor.
Lin Ruoyan, under the guise of reflecting on her own experiences in Guangdong Province and overseas, spoke from a purely detached perspective, making it easier for the audience to accept. Her language was simple, not offering any official or high-sounding perspective, but each sentence hit home, highlighting the value of the land.
The people from the Land Bureau became happier the more they listened. They had already begun to think about how to divide the land into different levels, how to release them bit by bit, and how to use the concept of a university town to gradually sell them at high prices.
Lin Ruoyan added, "A university town naturally can't be too far from a major transportation hub. If there's a planned subway or airport line, we should try to secure it, or choose more suitable plots of land near those main routes. I've seen this being done in Guangdong Province: a new district is built around the university town in the beautiful suburbs. There might be some undeveloped farmland left vacant in the middle. As the city expands, these vacant plots won't have to worry about rising prices, so they can be developed gradually when the time is right."
It's hard to say about other cities, but in Beijing, a magical place where the floor land price outside the Sixth Ring Road will be 50,000 yuan per square meter in 20 years, and any basic housing will cost 5 million yuan. It goes without saying that the land around transportation arteries, university towns, and industrial bases cannot be cheap.
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