Recently, leveraging their professional expertise in urban renewal and integrated area development, Dacheng Shanghai partners Wu Chenyao and Zong Shu successfully assisted China Construction Second Engineering Bureau (CSCEC-SEBC) in securing the implementation entity qualification for the Suzhou Wuzhong District Grand Canal East Area Industrial Upgrading Demonstration Base (North Zone) Comprehensive Renewal Project. With a total investment of approximately RMB 10 billion and a total construction area exceeding 1.2 million square meters, this project is Suzhou’s first pilot initiative for inefficient land redevelopment. Its successful launch not only resolves development bottlenecks in the Wuzhong District Grand Canal East Area—such as fragmented industrial land use and insufficient industrial capacity—but also establishes a replicable practical policy model, providing a benchmark demonstration for Suzhou's citywide promotion of inefficient land redevelopment. It holds significant reference value for urban renewal model innovation across the Yangtze River Delta region.

Under China’s national strategy for new urbanization, the Ministry of Natural Resources initiated the inefficient land redevelopment pilot program in September 2023. As one of 43 pilot cities nationwide, Suzhou pioneered innovative practices in enhancing the efficiency of existing land resources. Seizing this policy opportunity, Dacheng Shanghai partners Wu Chenyao and Zong Shu were engaged to provide specialized legal services to CSCEC-SEBC. As a wholly owned subsidiary of the Fortune Global 500 company China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), CSCEC-SEBC is a state-owned large-scale construction conglomerate integrating investment, construction, and operation, with extensive experience in new urbanization development. In this collaboration, the Dacheng Shanghai legal team successfully supported CSCEC-SEBC in its bid to become the implementation entity for the Wuzhong District Grand Canal East Area project, marking a strategic breakthrough for this central state-owned enterprise in the Yangtze River Delta urban renewal sector.

The project adopts a full-cycle “investment-financing-construction-operation-exit” development model. Implementation scope includes industrial facilities, supporting commercial construction, and infrastructure enhancement. The total investment amounts to approximately RMB 10 billion, with a planned renewed gross floor area exceeding 1.2 million square meters. The comprehensive renewal zone encompasses 15 industrial land parcels, 2 R&D land parcels, and 1 commercial land parcel. Infrastructure upgrades involve new/upgraded roads, municipal pipeline networks, and landscape greening. Differing from traditional industrial park development, this project’s planned structures extend beyond standard factories and offices to provide customized industrial spaces for sectors like artificial intelligence, high-end equipment, electronic information, and low-altitude economy. This initiative represents CSCEC’s first comprehensive inefficient land renewal project and is the first implemented landmark project among Suzhou’s initial batch of 60 pilot programs, playing a pivotal demonstrative role in launching the city’s inefficient land redevelopment policy.

As Suzhou’s inaugural pilot project advanced during the policy window for inefficient land redevelopment, CSCEC-SEBC faced multifaceted challenges during preliminary project establishment and implementation plan formulation. These included undefined pilot policy rules and institutional conflicts between traditional land development models and modern urban renewal requirements. To address these challenges, the Dacheng Shanghai legal team developed a trinity of legal service systems centered on “policy analysis, institutional design, and compliance control,” assisting the client in navigating the entire project lifecycle from investment to exit. Additionally, addressing complex land ownership rights and diverse land characteristics, the team meticulously defined stakeholder rights and obligations in core transaction documents to mitigate risks in property consolidation, infrastructure development, land conveyance, and industrial cluster development.

Dacheng Shanghai partners Wu Chenyao and Zong Shu, drawing on their forward-thinking research and practical experience in urban renewal and inefficient land redevelopment, formulated a specialized and systematic legal solution. This resolved policy pilot and statutory convergence challenges while ensuring the compliant execution of the RMB 10 billion project and generating transferable institutional innovation insights. Through this project, Dacheng Shanghai has forged a rule-of-law model for SOE-local government collaboration in new urbanization, demonstrating the firm’s professional strength in full-chain real estate and infrastructure legal services while contributing expertise to the legal framework advancement of China’s new urbanization.