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Currently, there are more and more urban parks, and many even aim to build "park cities." It is undeniable that while continuously improving the living environment for citizens, management costs are rising sharply, burdening many local governments financially. In the future, we can explore paths such as "changing from citizen-exclusive to main-guest sharing, changing from regional closure to open space, changing from social welfare to operational efficiency, and changing from simple recreation to comprehensive recreation."

In recent years, the business model upgrade of Chaoyang Park in Beijing has been highly effective. Water and land amusement parks, forest camps, various recreational internal transportation tools, VR/AR spaces, script killing, etc., even Bubble Mart has found a place in the park. However, from the perspective of the consumer market, amusement facilities built in urban parks are much better than those built in tourist areas far from the city, which can be described as "those closest to the water get the first moon."

The tourism upgrade of urban parks should be an important part of urban renewal, and the approach of Chaoyang Park can be used for reference. However, although the business models are diverse, due to the lack of a theme, the product layout is somewhat disorganized, and the functional areas and routes need further adjustment and improvement. In addition, possibly due to safety management reasons, the park closes at night, which adds many inconveniences to the operation of related products and deserves further discussion.

Urban park renovation hinges on revitalization.

The commercialization of parks has taken the lead.

There are many examples of park-like designs in urban commercial areas. For instance, the Mixc Plaza in Chengdu's Mixc City underwent a significant commercial park-style transformation:

In 2023, Chengdu Mixc City upgraded its 32,000-square-meter plaza, commissioning Zaha Hadid Architects for the design. The 195-day renovation project, costing hundreds of millions, was unveiled on September 29 last year. This is also the first architectural landscape work by Zaha Hadid Architects in Chengdu in collaboration with China Resources Land.

It's architecture, but also landscape; this is a key consideration in modern commercial design—how to integrate natural elements into the commercial experience, opening up enclosed commercial spaces to embrace nature, becoming a trend in current commercial design.

Similarly, Chongqing's Guang Huan Shopping Park integrates a park into the commercial complex, reflecting the same design logic—a space that is both commercial and park-like, incorporating park-like scenes into an enclosed space.

Another well-known project that incorporates commercial elements into a park is Chengdu REGULAR (Yuanye). If Chengdu SKP isn't the model for park commercialization, then who is? I think it's Chengdu REGULAR. Its small size, entirely underground, with a total construction area of approximately 6.5K square meters and about 20 brands, attracts many visitors. After visiting, one genuinely marvels at this small but impressive project. Every shop, from its space and details to its products and content, is worth a closer look, each unique yet seemingly unified in aesthetic. Many spaces resemble art galleries, exuding an artistic yet relaxed and bourgeois commercial atmosphere. The materials are simple and authentic; some spaces even have interesting construction methods.

REGULAR represents a model for urban park renovation—respecting the park's primary function while using commercial elements to enhance the experience and art, respecting the space's original purpose as a park, all of which creates an incredibly imaginative experience.

I consider REGULAR a model for park commercialization/empowerment. However, most parks lack the conditions and scale of REGULAR, nor do they have the same effective operational mechanisms to revitalize park operations through commercial operations.

Park asset revitalization requires operational empowerment.

The revitalization of park assets has always been a headache when dealing with municipal projects.

In most projects I've encountered, government authorities may have construction funds in the early stages, but the high operating costs later lead to overgrown projects, poor accessibility, and many municipal public projects falling into disrepair within a few years.

What to do? We need to revitalize park operations through industry involvement. How can we give parks new meaning and value? How can we make parks self-sustaining and revitalized?

Conventionally, renovating a park involves a series of measures, such as returning more space to citizens instead of simply creating landscapes that isolate citizens. Parks should be social spaces, participatory spaces, and part of life.

Achieving this goal requires more than just building park space. The key is to operate the park as a product.

"Micro-commerce" and "micro-sports": Empowering park asset revitalization

To increase the vitality of traditional parks, I believe that introducing "micro-commerce" and "micro-sports" from various industrial empowerment initiatives should be a convenient and important approach.

1. Introducing commercial elements into parks using a commercial real estate development model currently faces significant policy obstacles. Because the land type cannot be changed, park land cannot be directly used for commercial development. However, many cities have issued "standards for access to park supporting service projects." For example, Beijing's policy states:

"The supporting service projects referred to in this standard refer to the actions of park management agencies (owner units) or operators selected through market competition mechanisms to introduce social capital to invest in, construct, and operate supporting service projects within the park in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. This includes various supporting service projects such as catering and retail, sightseeing and entertainment, cultural leisure, sports and fitness, emergency rescue, smart management, and barrier-free environments."

Due to varying policies across different regions, Beijing's policy indirectly reflects the government's attempt to break free from existing policy constraints and inject vitality into park projects. This is a positive step, at least domestically, as it creates a clear opening for commercial use with policy backing. Based on recent project design communication, the implementation of this policy opening varies significantly among different regional departments. Most government leaders prefer to adopt a strategy of optimizing the status quo to promote the commercialization of parks.

Therefore, "micro-commerce" and "micro-sports" present significant market opportunities. This is because, under relatively ambiguous policies, flexible methods can be used to integrate commercial/sports elements into park projects, such as:

Transforming existing gardens and green spaces into sports venues
Utilizing existing elevation differences and garden constructions to create grey spaces for public services
Leveraging existing property management and supporting buildings to provide commercial services
Utilizing mobile commercial vehicles, tailgate markets, and mobile food stalls to provide weekend/festival commercial support

Of course, investment should leverage social capital flexibly.

Beijing's policy also states that it supports and encourages social capital to enter the park supporting service field, promoting the branding and chain operation of park supporting service projects, and advocating an integrated, packaged, and professional operation model. This provides many existing commercial and sports operators with a new investment path, which is relatively lighter in terms of assets and carries lower investment and operational risks. If the local government also has cultural and sports support policies and special funds, providing some government procurement would make the overall operational logic more sound.

How to revitalize:

1. Commercial and sports operations support park operations: Rent/points deduction or franchise fees compensate for operational cost shortfalls.

2. The large public flow generated by sports operations enhances commercial operational efficiency and increases the ability of commercial operations to support park operations, providing more market profit space for operators in parking lots, fast charging, etc.

3. Projects in better locations can use the EPC+O model to solve the funding problem of urban park renovation. Of course, based on the calculation of operating profits, the government still needs to hold a certain percentage of shares to support the rapid realization of the initial construction.

4. At the same time, local governments can optimize some indicators for urban renewal to further establish the foundation for commercial logic and attract more social capital.

Shanghai is likely a leader in such projects. For example, the Huangpu Riverfront project. Urban park renovation is a comprehensive and systematic project. It not only involves the renovation and upgrading of the parks themselves, but also involves the organic integration with commercial, sports, and numerous other industrial fields. Through renovation, we can inject new vitality into urban parks, making them good places for citizens to relax and have fun, important carriers of urban culture, and new drivers of economic development.

The operational value of micro-commerce/micro-sports for park projects is a kind of benign feedback and a simple practice in urban renewal. Whether as a city park management entity, a capital party, or an operator, everyone can benefit. Of course, there are many other ways to solve similar problems; commerce and sports are just the most common ones. From my professional perspective, they are easier to implement and promote.

Finally, urban parks vary in form and cannot be generalized. Each problem has its own unique solution. It depends on our innovative thinking to find better resource brands and solutions under existing policies. This is the core way of thinking when dealing with park renovation projects.

October 24-26

2024 China (Zhengzhou) Tourism, Leisure and Entertainment Industry Expo

(and China Zhengzhou Amusement Facilities and Equipment Expo)

Will be held at the Zhengzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center

500+ exhibitors to help you build a one-stop shop,

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