Firms line up to move into China Resources Building

In May, Alibaba Group Holding signed a deal to move into the China Resources Building in the heart of Qingdao to tap into the dynamic economy of the port city.

The China Resources Building is located in the City Crossing complex, completed in August at the cost of 20 billion yuan ($3.13 billion). The City Crossing complex comprises the China Resources Building - an automated office building - a shopping mall, serviced apartments and a luxury residential building.

After Alibaba Group completed its move, a number of financial institutions and industrial giants have taken up spots at the city center.

The 5A-class office building is expected to lead to the construction of more world-class business office buildings in Qingdao and further the city's economic development by attracting major corporations to establish regional offices.

The first China Resources Building, built in Hong Kong in 1983, is the company's flagship for office buildings across China and Asia and features a number of high-tech building technologies.

The building is located next to one city hall, with two subway line stops in the pipeline and an ever-expanding vista of skyscrapers around it. China Resources bought the plot on Shandong Road in 2009 for 6.7 billion yuan, the highest land auction price in Qingdao at the time.

The 200-meter-high building has 12 high-speed elevators and 6,000 parking spaces to ensure smooth traffic within the building.

The lobby is impressive, measuring 10 meters high and spreads across 900 sq m. Offices in the building are currently sold at 20,500 yuan per square meter.

Business leaders and office employees can take an elevator down to the Mixc Shopping Mall, the highlight development of the project, which sprawls across 450,000 square meters and has seven levels and three basement floors.

An estimated 600,000 visits were recorded in the first four days after opening, with revenue earnings of more than 50 million yuan.

Apart from the myriad of retail stores and restaurants, the mall, which is the largest mixed-use development in Qingdao, includes a roof garden, an Olympic-size ice skating rink that will host Skate Asia 2015, a Sega-run indoor amusement park, a children's area and the only swimming pool in Qingdao using ozone disinfectant.

The center's high-end residential building offers homes ranging from 110 to 240 sq m, while rooms at the serviced apartment complex are between 50 and 90 sq m.

Contact City Crossing: 0532-6887-7777

zhuanti@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 09/11/2015 page12)