NewShanghai dreams of its own Broadway with project backed by Allan Zeman
Lan Kwai Fong's Allan Zeman spearheads the 15 billion yuan development billed as a world-class urban centre for entertainment and arts
If Allan Zeman can transform an old market district of Hong Kong into one of the hippest (and most bankable) entertainment brands in Asia, why can't he take Broadway to Shanghai? Or, for that matter, a good slug of Hollywood?
The so-called "father" of Lan Kwai Fong is doing just that, spearheading the Shanghai DreamCenter, a 15 billion yuan "lifestyle destination" on the West Bund - a concept imagined by United States film studio DreamWorks Animation and jointly backed by China Media Capital - a state-backed investment fund - and China Development Bank.
Zeman is the founder of Lan Kwai Fong Group, a multi-faceted company based on restaurants, bars and property interests in Hong Kong, mainland China and overseas, whose daily operations are now overseen by his son, Jonathan Zeman, as chief executive.
The group has already taken its brand to mainland China, opening LKF Chengdu in December 2010, and the upcoming LKF Haikou at Mission Hills Golf Resort, Hainan Island, due to open in the fourth quarter, and LKF Wuxi, slated for opening in the middle of next year. But the Shanghai DreamCenter will be its most ambitious yet.
Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chief executive of DreamWorks, has boasted that this would become the world's third great urban centre of entertainment and arts, "alongside New York's Broadway, and London's West End".
