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REAL ESTATE: China’s National Games are coming to Tianjin
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China's National Games are coming to Tianjin

By Lesley Chai, Senior Analyst, JLL Research; Michael Hart, Managing Director of JLL Tianjin


BT 201704 REAL 01In less than five months, National Games, a domestic gathering of athletes that takes place every four years will be held in Tianjin. The two previous installments were held in Shandong and Liaoning provinces. Although the marketing campaigns may not have been running at full speed, planning and construction teams have been working overtime for years to be ready for the event.


National Games are one in a long line of major sporting or cultural events held in Tianjin that give the city an excuse to invest in itself. Other events of the similar kind are bi-annual Summer Davos events, East Asian Games, Tianjin Open tennis tournament and some early qualifying matches for the 2008 Olympics. We view these not really about the specific events themselves but rather as an opportunity that the city has seized upon to help promote itself, to drive domestic tourism and as a great excuse to build more infrastructure.

BT 201704 REAL 08
The Event


The 13th National Games will be held in Tianjin from August 27th to September 8th 2017. This event is expected to attract about 10,000 athletes and 1,000 referees and officials into Tianjin to participate. Additionally, another about 7,000 non-professionals are expected to take part in 19 sporting events, including roller skating, dragon boat racing and a marathon. We believe that the larger scale of National Games will bring more changes and development in Tianjin during and after the game.


Infrastructure


In order to support the event, the city has been building sporting facilities. These include:


Sports stadiums:
- 47 stadiums across the city will be used during the National Games. The government plans to build 21 new stadiums, renovate 15 existing stadiums and directly use another 11 existing arenas. After the games, we expect most sports stadiums would be accessible to the public, providing more options for citizens to participate in sports and enhancing their communities.
- Universities are going to benefit directly by adding more high quality sports stadiums, as 10 out of 21 future stadiums are located in colleges and university campuses. For example, five new stadiums are going to be located in the Haihe Education Park in Jinnan district. After the games, those stadiums are expected to cater to students and improve the facility level of universities.


Parks:

Several parks have been built near different communities to improve the city's image before the games. One typical example is the new Fumin Park (in Hedong district). In September 2015, Hedong Fumin Park opened to public and provided 80,000 sqm of public space with 16,000 sqm of space for sports facilities, such as football field, basketball court and 900 metres athletics track around the park. It has become the sports centre in the surrounding area since it opened.


In addition, government is revamping dozens of old parks, such as Nankai Park and Zhujiang Park, by adding more public fitness equipment.


Roads and Rails

Infrastructure development is underway in several areas including subways, roads and overpasses. The story is that these new infrastructure links connect sporting venues to the rest of the city for easy access.


- New highway overpasses are under construction. Jinhan Overpass (connecting downtown to the Airport area), Dongting Road Overpass (adjacent to National Games Village and connecting to Jingang, Tianjin city centre to Dagang Express Way to Jinnan District) and Jieyuan West Road Overpass started construction one year ago and are expected to complete and open to traffic by end of June 2017.


- Construction of subway lines is speeding up. Metro Line 5, which will pass Tianjin Olympic Centre Stadium, Galaxy International Shopping Mall, and several large residential catchments in Hexi and Hedong District are expected to open before the event. Metro 6 phase II, from Water Park East Road Station to Meilin Road Station (near south Outer Ring Road and Meijiang Area), passing National Games Village is also expected to complete before the event.

BT 201704 REAL 07Source: 13th National Games official website, JLL Tianjin Research


Environmental Improvements


- 46 roads are going to be cleaned and rebuilt, especially those near the stadiums and National Games Village and along Haihe River (Daguangming Bridge to Liuzhuang Bridge in Hedong District).

- To prepare for aquatic sports, the government has cleaned up the Haihe River channel, from Jingang Bridge to Erdaozha in Jinnan District and removed up to 300 cubic meter of garbage.


High-end residential projects:

- National Games Village:


hl realTo provide accommodation for the athletes, coaches and media staff during the event, Tianjin has built the National Game Village. Started in early 2015 and developed by Greentown and Sunac, the National Game Village is located in Hexi District along Jiefang South Road in the Meijiang Area just north of the Outer Ring Road.


The project comprises of 81 buildings, providing about 4,900 units with more than 700,000 sqm of residential and facility space. The project is expected to be completed by May 2017. After the games, citizens who bought the units can start to move in June 2018.


The National Games Village will reportedly have high quality of fit-out and more technology applications including Wi-Fi covering the whole community area. It will also adopt intelligent community concept. For example, residents can use an app to monitor their kids or older relatives when they are at home alone. The intelligent control system will also adjust the temperature of rooms automatically.


Area Branding


BT 201704 Real 04Several suburban areas, including Wuqing in the north-west of Tianjin and Tuanbo in the south are going to be given the chance to promote themselves through the games.


Wuqing, for example, is going to host the marathon, table tennis and triathlon. To prepare for marathon, the local government is actively taking measures to smooth traffic and reconstruct roads. During the marathon, more than 10,000 participants and thousands of spectators will come and get to know the district. Professional facilities, clean roads and good organization ability could all leave a good impression on people.


So overall, specific areas within Tianjin should be able to better brand themselves and show off their new sports facilities which may become anchors for more local events and encourage more restaurants or other retail locations to open nearby. Much in the same way, the stadium in the Five Roads area of Heping district has helped to revitalize that area.


Conclusion


BT 201704 Real 06National Games will offer a short burst of sport activities to attend and for a few days will increase occupancy at local hotels and drive spending at local restaurants. However, the long-term implications will be the new infrastructure that is being built in order to accommodate the event. Stadiums appear to have been thoughtfully- placed so that after the games they are likely to be used by local universities and communities. Similarly, new parks will improve the green space of the city for a wide variety of residents. The athlete village will be quickly absorbed into the landscape as just another housing development, large, but not particularly significant in a city dotted with new housing developments. We expect the largest impacts to come from the roads and subway lines that were completed to help make the games run smoothly, but will benefit Tianjin residents and businesses for years to come. So if you miss the games in August, don't worry, as a Tianjin resident, you will experience and enjoy the benefits for years to come.


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