Wanda Invests USD900 Million To Explore American Hotel Industry

Chinese real estate group Dalian Wanda Group announced that the company will invest USD900 million to build a 350-meter building in Chicago, which will be a 89-floor five-star hotel and apartment project.

This marks a new overseas expansion of Wanda's hotel business following its entry into London and Madrid. On the completion of the building, it will reportedly be the third highest building in Chicago.

Construction of the downtown waterfront project will begin this year and it is expected to open in 2018. Its centerpiece is an 89-floor skyscraper, which will include 240 five-star hotel rooms, luxury apartments and a commercial center.

Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group, revealed that the investment of Chicago property is just the company's first move into the U.S. real estate market. Within a year, the company will invest in more five-star hotels in major U.S. cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. By 2020, Wanda will have five-star hotels in 12 to 15 major cities across the world.

Apart from the acceleration of overseas expansion, Wanda started to become independent from the cooperation with international hotel management groups, and began to control the entire process from hotel construction to operation. By planning, Wanda Group will have over 100 hotels by 2015, and about half of the hotels will be directly operated by the company with owned brand.