A Chinese development company is building a residential district in that country inspired by the town of Greenwich, Connecticut. The company thinks if they imitate Greenwich’s wealthy suburban setting, they can draw in the same high-powered residents Greenwich is known for.
Bob Ormond is with the Zhejiang Giangong Real Estate Development company. Ormond said many high-powered Chinese businessmen go to the West to work in hedge funds or attend private universities, and they like what they see in wealthy suburbs like Greenwich. Think luxurious mansions and spacious estates. He said when those businessmen come back to China they want their own alternative to the high-rise buildings in a typical city.
“Greenwich does not have any high-rise buildings. If you look at a lot of what Greenwich has, there is a lot of greenery there. It’s urban countryside. It’s manicured. Very nice, opulent neighborhoods,” he said.
Ormond led a team that studied the town of Greenwich as it was designing a district in the city of Hangzhou, China. He said Hangzhou is the perfect place for a mini-Greenwich. It’s renowned for its natural beauty, like parks, scenic vistas, lakes and rivers. Like Greenwich, it’s less than an hour from a major metropolis- in this case, Shanghai. And, like Greenwich, Hangzhou’s a financial center. It’s home to the world headquarters of online retail giant Ali Baba.
“And that was one of the attractives to Greenwich, Connecticut, that great contrast between high finance and yet a bucolic setting, nearby a major city that you could hop to very quickly, but you could also get back to a nice lifestyle on a daily basis,” he said.
Ormond said when the district in Hangzhou is finished in 2019, it’ll house a few thousand people and be just over one square mile. That’ll be a tiny slice of Greenwich that’s a lot smaller and a lot denser than the real thing.
