A new commercial project of community renovation is about to be unveiled in Xuhui District, Shanghai. “Gemdale· Oopcity” may bring new ideas and inspirations.

The renewal and renovation of stock commerce is becoming a “new normal” in the future. Upgrading the hardware and software of the stock projects can not only give new functions and values to the buildings, but also revitalize the value of the business itself.

According to the statistics of Winshang, the number of stock renovation projects to be launched in 2019 alone is over 30, with a total volume of over 2.5 million square meters.

On the track of stock renovation, compared with the larger commercial projects, small & pretty and small & fine community-based commercial projects are limited by volume and other factors. There are few representative cases with outstanding performance.

However, “Gemdale·Oopcity”, which will be unveiled at the end of December, may bring new ideas and inspirations.

01

Deeply cultivating community business and urban renewal

The innovative product lines of “Oopcity”

By adhering to the concept of “building urban value”, Gemdale Properties and Investment has successively distributed itself in Beijing, Xi'an, Wuhan, Hangzhou and Shanghai, forming two product lines, namely “Gemdale Plaza” (compound supporting commerce) and “Gemdale Center” (complex commerce). 
 

On the other hand, in the past few years, Gemdale Properties and Investment has also quietly entered into the field of stock renovation, and has completed representative stock renovation and renewal projects such as Shanghai No. 8 Bridge and Sanlin Bridge.

Based on the current development trend of the domestic stock market and the recognition of and the optimism toward the community business track, the East China team of Gemdale Properties and Investment has been deeply cultivating the field of stock renovation by aiming at the model of community business in terms of the development strategy, focusing on building the community business of “the last kilometer economy”.
 

In 2019, while successfully launching its first community commerce project in Shanghai, Jiuting Gemdale Plaza, Gemdale Properties and Investment East China also joined hands with WINS Investment to complete the acquisition of the project of Shanghai Kangjian Plaza.

As a professional institution of real estate investment under the Gemdale Corporation, WINS Investment has been conducting innovative exploration in the field of urban renewal in recent years. Based on its value-added development strategy, WINS Investment is particularly interested in community-based businesses with demand potential and value enhancement. The project of Shanghai Kangjian Plaza is a typical urban renewal project of community commerce under this strategy. The project is located in Xuhui District, the core of Shanghai, with a high-quality base of consumer and educational resources, and surrounding schools, which give the project great potential for education and entertainment. Through the renovation, upgrading and integration of resources, Kangjian Plaza will be transformed into a community-oriented shopping center with children's education and recreation as the service theme.

This project located in the core area of Shanghai does not follow the existing product line, but starts a new product line exploration – Gemdale·Oopcity, centering around the theme of “Joyful Life, Together”. It aims to create a new form community commerce that combines quality, experience and visual enjoyment with a sense of “surprises”, creating a new lifestyle for consumers that is “interesting, fresh and energetic”.

After a series of upgrades, Gemdale·Oopcity will soon emit its new life. So far, the project has started its one-month countdown. How will its launch provide a new direction for the renewal and upgrade of community business?

02

Aiming at “the living circle of the last kilometer”

Repositioning, upgrading and rejuvenation

The project is located in Kangjian Sub-district, Xuhui District, Shanghai, with a floor area of about 20,000 square meters, and in a mature residential area with a livable and dynamic community environment.

In addition, geographically, the project is close to higher education institutions such as Shanghai Normal University and East China University of Science and Technology, as well as key schools such as Shanghai Ziwei Experimental Kindergarten, Shanghai World Foreign Language Primary School and Zhongguo High School, surrounded by high-quality educational resources for all ages, creating a positive and sunny atmosphere for family growth.

As a major commercial facility in the Kangjian Community, the project has been in operation for 15 years, but the drawbacks of its architectural pattern, urban interface and brand format, as well as the difficulties in its sustainable operation, have gradually become apparent, making it difficult to meet the current needs of community consumers for daily consumption and service experience.

How to make the project harmoniously coexist with the community's landscape and layout in terms of architectural form, while allowing the coexistence of various business forms such as food and beverage, education and lifestyle facilities, and adapting to the current consumption trends of the community?
 

In this regard, the project team is exploring and practicing new perspectives and dimensions in enhancing the diversity of community business at multiple levels, such as architectural space, business combination and operational characteristics, throughout the emerging form of consumer economy under the day and night demand. At the same time, it will start from the three major directions of meeting the demand of Small Sun family business, the demand of community interaction in the region and the demand of urban quality improvement, and create a commercial body with a sense of family warmth and family affiliation for the consumers within 1-1.5km of the surrounding area.

By combining the characteristics of the project and market research, the project team tried to combine the “folk customs” at the doorstep with the exquisite and warm business concept centering around the keyword “parent-child paradise”, and upgraded its positioning, hardware and software.
 

On the other hand, the team seeks for the opportunity of harmonious resonance between people and community, family life and community welfare, presenting customized and intimate experiential commercial contents, thus constructing a new commercial field of cultural value in urban public space and providing sustainable power for urban renewal.

03

Focusing on the life of community and neighborhood

Creating a personalized “experience space”

In contrast with conventional new construction projects, the mall itself is regarded as part of the urban space and memory in the project renovation design, and is integrated into the system of public life. From the existing pattern of the project itself, the design team created an interesting and fantastic experience space to meet the needs of the target customers for experience and commercial space, bringing a new presentation at the visual and sensory level.

▶Condensing the design theme and presenting a concept of “fairy tale”

 

Combined with the Mediterranean style of the project, the design transformation of the project is inspired by the famous Spanish fairy tale “Cloud Factory”, and the façade image of the building is reshaped in a more modern and refined way, and the space layout of corridor + atrium + staircase is retained.In addition, cloud, arc and other shaping elements are incorporated to create vivid personalizedcharacteristics.
 

▶Reinforcing the display image and shaping the interesting and interactive scenes

By adding landscape sculptures and introducing IP images at the main entrance, and reshaping the spiral staircase, this project not only makes people feel the open view, but also forms a warm and lovely, interesting and interactive atmosphere. At the same time, cloud-shaped balconies are applied along the street façade and a series of themed landscape vignettes are set up to enhance the project's memory point and signification.
 

◎The renderings of the main entrance of the project after renovation

▶Reconstructing the interior layout and optimizing the flow of visitors

 Indoors, a grand staircase with a sense of artistic shape is created in the main atrium in terms of the functional demand of operation, and the interior flow lines and spaces are completely reshaped and optimized through the adjustment of escalators and architectural cuts, so that the project is naturally and boundlessly extended to be an interactive platform for urban public functions.

The revitalized Gemdale·Oopcity maintains the personalized characteristics and the formality of the urban interface as it should be, and also provides a brand-new parent-child paradise with interactive participation and interest creativity tailored for community consumers. These initiatives will bring higher popularity and more precise customer flow, thus enhancing the consumption level and market activity of community business.

◎The renderings of the atrium of the project after renovation

04

Customized upgrading of the format brand

Adding to the “wonderful life”

At the same time of visual and experience upgrades, in terms of commercial content, Gemdale · Oopcity also brings consumers a “joyous” journey by deeply tapping the current needs of consumer groups, with a new format portfolio and brand.
 

I learned that the overall investment rate of the project has exceeded 95%, and has introduced more than 50 quality brands integrating fresh-goods supermarkets, various cuisines, family life and children's education with community life support, casual dining and comprehensive training institutions as the main attractions.
 

From the perspective of creating “the last kilometer” living circle of the community, in order to fill the market gap of large fresh-goods supermarkets around Kangjian Community, the investment team has changed the original B1 floor big-health business format into a boutique fresh-goods supermarket, and introduced “Hema”, a new brand of retail fresh-goods supermarket, which is the most popular brand nowadays. This initiative will greatly improve the quality of life and convenience in the area.

With an insight into the current consumers' pursuit of “thematic and characteristic things”, “small and pretty things”, “new scenes and content”, the project continues to reconstruct the overall spatial environment with human feelings as the starting point, and applies the “scene-based” concept in its business upgrading. Combined with the daily needs of office workers and families, “Joy Food Collection” which offers a wide variety of choices has come into being. In addition, we have introduced well-known food brands such as Pizza Hut and other innovative flavors with local characteristics, taking into account the tastes of the surrounding consumers.

On the other hand, centering around the “Small Sun Family”, the mall retains some of the original educational tenants and introduces a number of multi-dimensional growth brands covering early childhood care, extracurricular tutoring, art education and Chinese studies courses, so that the surrounding families can explore surprises in the project experience, learn and grow through interaction and communication, and realize the intermingling of different life states such as learning and entertainment. 
 

The combination of brands close to daily life and family needs not only echoes the gene of community life, but also meets the needs of families' daily life and children's growth, effectively enhancing the happiness of the surrounding consumers. On the other hand, the project operation can gradually enhance the stickiness of the surrounding consumers by creating large and small “surprises” through linking with tenants, making it a daily family meeting place, a special and warm resting and social space, and a warm and healing oasis of delicious food.

Through the above actions, we can notice that Gemdale·Oopcity breaks through the existing pattern and limitations of the community, aims to fully enhance the richness and quality of consumer life, and optimizes the commercial appearance and experience of the street, thus bringing a new community lifestyle from visual, experiential and content dimensions.
 

It is reported that in the future, the project team will not only introduce a series of lovely and intimate forms of neighborhood interaction focused on “neighborhood” warmth, seek the value overlap opportunities of the wonderful life, and continue to create “joy” for consumers, but also create an upgraded scene of experiential community business, injecting new vitality into urban renewal and bringing warmth, joy and splendid imagination.
 

How will it, aiming to build an atmosphere combining “folk customs” and exquisite business, bring a new lifestyle at the doorstep of Kangjian Community in Xuhui District with its practical actions, and how will it bring a new model of value optimization for the commercial transformation of the stock assets?
 

We look forward to its wonderful debut at the end of December!