Lotte signs contract to build $884 million Eco-Smart City

On July 25, Korean Lotte Group and the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee signed a contract to build up the VND20.1 trillion ($884 million) Eco-Smart City in Thu Thiem New Urban Area.

Accordingly, four affiliates belonging to Lotte Group (Lotte Asset Development, Lotte Shopping, Lotte Hotel, and Lotte Engineering and Construction) will implement this project.

With the investment capital of $884 million, Lotte Eco-Smart City was designed as a modern complex covering six plots in Functional Area 2A in Thu Thiem.

The 74,000-square metre site will incorporate a shopping mall, offices, hotels, serviced residences, and apartments. The 11 residential towers, 15-40 storeys each, covering 50,000sq.m, will be built first.

Lotte Group also needs to complete 25,000sq.m of contracted infrastructure that will serve the site, including four roadways, before transferring it to local authorities.

In 2013, Lotte Group officially proposed this project to the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee. In April 2016, the city authorities had issued a decision to choose the four companies under the umbrella of Lotte Group to be the investors for this project.

According to Shin Dong Bin, Lotte Group’s chairman, this project is of a large scale and is very important. "We will develop Eco-Smart City to be a landmark of Ho Chi Minh City,” he committed.

Nguyen The Minh, head of the Thu Thiem New Urban Area Management Board, commented that this is one of the most significant projects of the whole Thu Thiem, as it will bring a modern finance, trading, and multi-services project.

Lotte was also assigned to finish the construction of this project within 72 months of the day it receives the land lease certificate.

In order to be chosen as the investor of the project, in August 2015 Lotte Group paid a VND2 trillion ($89.6 million) deposit on land use fees and had assigned six land plots in the project.

Ho Chi Minh City Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong requested the investor to start this project as early as the third quarter of this year.

Lotte Group made its first investments Vietnam in 1996 with a confectionery factory. To date, it has expanded to many other fields, such as trading centres, supermarkets, cinemas, and otel and real estate, with the total investment capital of roughly $2 billion.

Lotte Group recently increased its investment in the Vietnamese retail market with a range of projects the group has acquired from other investors.

The group also poured an additional $500 million into Lotte Hanoi Centre in the heart of Hanoi.

Lotte Group has also decided to invest an additional $300 million after acquiring the delayed Ciputra Hanoi Mall from Indonesia Citra Westlake Development Company.

 (Source: vir.com.vn)