Guocoland project in China wins international property award

LONDON: Guoson Centre, a flagship project by Malaysia's Hong Leong Group property arm, Guocoland China Ltd, won Best International Mixed-Use Development at the International Property Awards here recently.

This award signifies the transformation of the company, from a single project company to one that does mega-size integrated development.

It means world recognition of the efforts that we have put in, and world recognition that China can actually construct quality projects that can top the world. For many years, China has not won any international recognition for its real estate, said Guocoland China managing director Violet Lee, a Singaporean who has worked in China for the past 21 years.


Violet Lee ... ‘We look at the project from the community angle.’

Guoson Centre is a sustainable and fully-integrated development project in Beijing and Shanghai that comprises shopping malls, transportation hubs, hotels, high-end residences and office blocks.

The centres are built on prime locations with transportation hubs in Beijing and Shanghai, and are modelled after the concept of a city within a city around the theme of Work, Live, Play. Their transportation hub in Beijing is the largest in Asia.

The Guoson Centres have earlier won the China and Asia Pacific Property Awards to qualify for consideration for the International Property Awards, which is held in association with Bloomberg Television. The award is regarded as the world's most prestigious accolade in the field of property development.

Lee believed that one of the reasons Guoson Centre clinched the Best International Mixed-Use Award was its emphasis on value for the community.

We look at the project from the community angle. We are giving back to the community, said Lee who listed eco-friendly features as one of the important features in her company's development projects.

We also have the mass rapid transit system which contributes to the livelihood of the people in China.

Lee is also proud of the 40,000 sq m sky garden in Guoson Centre, an open-space roof garden which the company would landscape and provide its clients with green recreational space.

Lee also said that winning the award strengthened the company's confidence in working on large-scale, integrated mixed-use developments.

Guocoland China, a Singapore-listed property investment arm of Malaysian conglomerate Hong Leong Group, was established in 1994. It has invested an estimated US$3.5bil (RM11.03bil ) in China with a land bank of 2.5 million sq m in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Tianjin.

By The Star