China developer in $5B project at Barclays Center Brooklyn, New York

Greenland Holding Group signed an agreement with developer Forest City Ratner to take a majority stake in the the residential development that will be built at Atlantic Yards, seen as the biggest U.S. deal by a Chinese developer to date.

Greenland Holding Group, a developer behind one of China’s tallest towers, is investing in the Atlantic Yards residential development to rise alongside the Barclays Center.
Photo: Buck Ennis

(Bloomberg) — Greenland Holding Group Co., a developer building one of China’s tallest towers, is investing in a New York property project valued at more than $5 billion, the latest Chinese real estate company to venture overseas.
Greenland signed a memorandum of understanding on Oct. 2 with Forest City Ratner Cos. to develop the Atlantic Yards Apartment Project in Brooklyn, the Chinese company said in an e-mailed statement Friday. Greenland will take a 70% stake in the development, anchored by the Barclays Center, home of the National Basketball Association’s Brooklyn Nets. It is the biggest deal of its kind by a Chinese developer in the U.S., Greenland said.
“The trend for Chinese developers to continue to invest in the property market abroad will depend on the returns they get in the first batch of such investments,” Frank Chen, Shanghai-based head of China research at property broker CBRE Group Inc., said by phone. “The biggest challenge they face is not knowing the foreign markets well, so it’s wise to work with local partners.”
China’s property developers are expanding overseas as the government maintains curbs on residential housing at home to cool prices. China Vanke Co., the biggest homebuilder listed on the mainland, said in February it joined a residential-property venture in San Francisco.
U.S. market

Construction began on the first residential tower at Atlantic Yards in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to a March 27 statement from Forest City Enterprises. Half of the 32-story, 363-unit building will be reserved for low-, moderate-and middle-income residents, the company said.

“Greenland holds a positive view on the U.S. market,” Chairman Zhang Yuliang said in the statement today. “The U.S. economy is recovering. There’s ample amount of liquidity in the market.”

Greenland, a closely held company set up in 1992, said in July that it’s investing $1 billion in a downtown Los Angeles project to acquire a stake from California State Teachers’ Retirement

Source: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20131011/REAL_ESTATE/131019980