How Parkview Green raised the bar for Beijing’s hospitality industry

Driving along Beijing’s Dongdaqiao Road it’s hard to ignore Parkview Green, with its iconic pyramid shape, funky glass wall and imposing sculptures at the entrance.

The complex, which houses a shopping mall, boutique hotel and offices, is known in the expat community for its generous collections of artworks (here Salvador Dali’s surreal works hang alongside Yue Minjun’s signature Chinese contemporary art), fine gallery and attractive shops that can be found nowhere else in the mainland.

Oliver KH Lai, head of sales and marketing at Parkview Group – a Taiwanese family group – who oversees the company’s mainland projects including Parkview Green in Beijing, insisted there is more to the centre than aesthetic considerations.

The economics behind the operation is equally important and his team does care about “profit and loss”, he said in response to concerns that the centre is too ‘arty’ to give any thought to financial performance.

Lai said the project’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) had turned positive by the end of last year for the first time since it opened in 2012. As a private company, Parkview does not disclose earnings numbers.

“Our team is evaluated by a comprehensive system, just like standard companies are,” Lai said. “There is a ‘key performance indicators’ system that applies to all staff members, and includes occupancy ratio, talent retention ratio, workforce development and so on.”

But he also stressed that art and the environment are in the DNA of Parkview and that he, as a professional manager, is driven and evaluated by much more than just financial performance.