Allan Zeman's Lan Kwai Fong Holdings - developer of Hong Kong's iconic stretch of bars and restaurants - will expand to Haikou, Hainan Island. The company has formed a partnership with Mission Hills Group, owner of the world's largest golf club in Shenzhen, to develop a new retail-entertainment complex at a total investment cost of two billion yuan (HK$2.43 billion).
With a total area of 240,000 square metres, the new project will include a Lan Kwai Fong entertainment zone of more than 50,000 square metres, a lake, 35,000 square metres of outdoor and indoor retail space, a 25,000 square metre retail complex in a 1920-30s Shanghai art deco setting, and a 10,000 square metre traditional southern Chinese town selling local crafts and traditional gifts.
The new retail-entertainment complex, named Mission Hills-Lan Kwai Fong - Haikou, due to open in 2013, is part of a six billion yuan golf resort development.
The Mission Hills Haikou International Golf Resort, comprising 10 18-hole golf courses, a mineral-rich natural springs reserve and a 538-room luxury hotel, opened for business last year.
It is the group's second Lan Kwai Fong in the mainland after Chengdu. 'We will bring some operators from Hong Kong, the mainland and overseas, as we did successfully in Chengdu,' Zeman said.
He hopes the Hainan complex can boost tourist arrivals in Haikou by 20 per cent in 2014, its first full year of operation.