NewChinese developer loses deal to rebuild London's Crystal Palace Park
After much fanfare, ZhongRong loses exclusive deal to rebuild cultural venue, sparking talk of more failures by Chinese property investors
A three-year effort by a Chinese developer to rebuild the Crystal Palace in London, which housed the Great Exhibition of 1851, has faltered and industry experts warned this could be the beginning of more failures regarding Chinese property ventures abroad.
Bromley Council in London announced last month that an exclusivity agreement on Crystal Palace Park with ZhongRong Group would not be renewed.
The private Chinese developer, founded by Ni Zhaoxing, had proposed building a £500 million cultural destination on the same scale as the original Victorian glass and iron structure, which was first built in Hyde Park in 1851, then moved to Crystal Palace Park in 1854 before it was destroyed by fire in 1936.
ZhongRong started discussions with London mayor Boris Johnson in 2012, who then announced the plan with some fanfare in 2013.
"I have not heard of any outright failures to complete developments by other Chinese firms, but I'm pretty certain some investments have experienced much more difficulty than anticipated, especially around the complexity of the UK planning process," Mark Farmer, the head of residential at consultancy EC Harris in London, told the South China Morning Post.
Chinese companies, including property conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group and China Life Insurance, have made global headlines snapping up iconic buildings abroad.
I also think they have generally been shocked by how much things cost to build