(Yicai Global) April 28 -- Wanda Group has acquired a plot of land in Qingdao, where Chairman Wang Jianlin once dreamed of building China’s answer to Hollywood, marking the real estate developer’s return to the Chinese city after a three-year absence.

Dalian-based Wanda, which sold its last Qingdao project to Sunac China Holdings in 2017, won the bidding for two land parcels in the capital of Shandong province for CNY957 million (USD137.8 million), The Paper reported today.

It bought a 98,819-square meter plot for CNY813 million, or CNY4,116 (USD581.60) per sqm, and a 36,653-square meter area for CNY143 million, or CNY1,569 per sqm.

Wanda previously planned to invest CNY50 billion (USD7.1 billion) in the city to build the Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis. It was to be the world’s largest investment in film and television, and the world’s only new cultural tourism project covering the whole motion picture industry, including filming location, video making, film and TV exhibitions, film and TV tourism, the company said at that time. 

Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis covers an area of 3.76 million sqm, with a total construction area of 5.4 million sqm, consisting of a number of projects, including a motion pictures industrial park, movie museum, and film and TV exhibition center, it added.

But in July 2017, Wang sold 13 of the group’s cultural tourism projects, including Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis, to Sunac. In the October, the two parties announced that Sunac had paid CNY6.3 billion for Wanda’s cultural tourism unit along with the design, construction and management firms for 13 cultural tourism projects.

Editor: Peter Thomas