Chapter 600: Big Investment in Los Angeles
Chapter 600: Big Investment in Los Angeles
That night, Yang Wendong called Zou Wenhuai, who had just arrived at work, and informed him of the matter.
On the other end of the phone, Zou Wenhuai said happily, "Mr. Yang, I will gather all the company members right away and go to the United States."
Collaborating with Hollywood companies is also one of his goals. Even if the films he collaborates with only feature a small number of Hong Kong people or plots similar to those of Hong Kong films, it will be an important symbol of Hong Kong films’ global expansion.
Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Okay, but don't rush. In future cooperation, we must also show equality. We can't just follow Fox's demands. We must fight for the interests we should fight for.
Remember, we both have our own interests in this matter. We have enough capital, and Fox also needs us."
"Yes, Mr. Yang." Zou Wenhuai agreed.
The next day, after arranging the cooperation negotiations with Fox, Yang Wendong no longer paid special attention to this matter. When the future cooperation negotiations are almost done or reach a deadlock, he may still get involved.
After all, it is just a cooperation on a movie. The box office of top Hollywood movies is only tens of millions of dollars, and only a few of them make tens of millions of dollars in profit. If we join forces again, the profit will actually be only a few million dollars, which is not a small amount of money, but it is not a lot either.
If this wasn't the beginning of a new collaboration, he wouldn't have cared too much about a project with such little profit.
On September 9, Yang Wendong came to a place near the sea in the western part of downtown Los Angeles. In front of him was an old 16-story building with a large area.
Zheng Zhijie next to him said: "Mr. Yang, this building in front of you was an office building built in the 30s. Later, because it was dilapidated, it was turned into a hotel. But because it was too old and rats were rampant, the business was getting worse and worse.
But the location here is still good, only 1.8 kilometers away from the beach. Standing on the 8th floor, you can see the beach and the sea breeze is also suitable. ”
Yang Wendong looked around and asked, "So you want to buy this old property and build a Four Seasons Hotel?"
Zheng Zhijie said: “Yes, we need a Four Seasons hotel that we own, and then prove to other local investors that we have the ability to operate a hotel, and Los Angeles is the place we chose;
One is that this is the third largest city in the United States with a developed economy. The second is that Chinese people from Hong Kong and even Asia will give priority to Los Angeles or New York when coming to the United States. Los Angeles is closer, and our group also has many businesses in Los Angeles. Just for self-use, we can save a lot of money. "
"Well, Los Angeles is indeed a good place." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "In the future, my investment in the United States will still be centered in Los Angeles. If there is one more large hotel here, it will also be of great benefit to us internally."
The future of the United States has two cores, one is finance represented by New York, and the other is electronic technology and entertainment industry represented by Los Angeles; other industries such as automobiles, heavy industries, etc. will be eliminated in the future. A small number of industries such as medicine and retail are evenly distributed and not concentrated together, and there is no advantage for time travelers in these fields. After all, he only knows the most profitable Viagra, but he doesn't know the ingredients, and even if he knows it, he can't make it.
As the largest commercial place in the future, this is just the place where he dumps his various products. But if he makes a lot of money, he has to keep some of it here. So investing in Los Angeles is the best choice. Many industries here are the most suitable targets for him.
Zheng Zhijie smiled and said, "That's good. This will be much more convenient."
Yang Wendong asked again: "How big is this Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles? How many suites does it have?"
Zheng Zhijie replied: "I plan to build a medium-sized five-star hotel with about 400 suites. This number is based on my assessment of the flow of people in Los Angeles last year and other hotel businesses."
"400? Isn't that smaller than the one in Hong Kong?" Yang Wendong asked back.
Zheng Zhijie shook his head and said, "The number of rooms is indeed smaller than in Hong Kong, but the location here in Los Angeles, the housing prices are much cheaper than in Central, Hong Kong, so the single rooms are much larger. The hotels in the United States are not small, unlike Hong Kong.
So in terms of total area, the two are about the same, and with some supporting facilities, they may be slightly larger.”
Hong Kong's current economy is far inferior to that of Los Angeles, but one is an island and the other is a normal land city, so except for the city center, Hong Kong's housing prices are more expensive than Los Angeles. At the same time, Hong Kong's culture also makes people's requirements for the size of hotel rooms far less than in the United States.
Yang Wendong nodded and said, "So that's the case, but 400 rooms are still too few. Build more rooms. I am also very optimistic about the future economy of Los Angeles, especially Silicon Valley."
The wealth created by Silicon Valley alone may exceed that of Hong Kong. Although most of this wealth is earned by capital, a small part of it will also benefit the entire Los Angeles.
Since he was going to build a hotel, he might as well build a big one. As far as he knew about the future, Los Angeles would hardly lack tourists or business people, unless the business was run very poorly, then there would be nothing he could do.
"A little more? How much do you think is appropriate, Mr. Yang?" Zheng Zhijie asked.
Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said, "Let's double it, to 800 rooms."
"800? Mr. Yang, with this amount, the cost of the hotel would have to be multiplied several times." Zheng Zhijie replied: "Generally, a five-star hotel costs four or five hundred."
Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "It is precisely because common hotels have four or five hundred suites that we need to do something different. My idea is that the Four Seasons Hotel in the future should be positioned as an ultra-high-end hotel. Only in this way can it have its own unique advantages.
Even if the price is high, as long as the service is better than other hotels and the living environment is better, there will always be high-end consumers willing to spend money. "Zheng Zhijie thought about it and said, "Yes, Hilton InterContinental is already very mature, so it may be more appropriate for us to open a super high-end hotel, but in this case, there will be a large upper limit in terms of quantity."
Yang Wendong smiled and said, "It doesn't matter if the upper limit is low because the positioning is different. If there is a chance in the future, we can directly acquire some other brands with different positioning."
In the past, the price of Coca-Cola in the mainland has always been 2.5-3 yuan, so many other beverages have to go the high-priced route because they simply cannot compete with the same price;
The same is true for other industries. In the traditional industry of hotels, many brands have been operating for hundreds of years and are experienced. It is bound to be difficult to do the same type as them. Investors will definitely choose old hotels.
Therefore, we need to take a different approach. InterContinental and Hilton are ordinary five-star hotels. They have the largest market, but they are already mature. So we should go for a higher-end one, just like BBA compared to Volkswagen and Toyota.
Once you are successful and have enough money and business team, you can acquire well-positioned brand hotels, just like Porsche once intended to acquire Volkswagen, but failed and was counter-acquired.
Zheng Zhijie nodded and said, "Okay, I understand. In that case, I will buy a larger plot of land. Otherwise, building a building that is too high will not be economically viable."
When land is not valuable, it is more appropriate to buy more land for the same size of building area.
Yang Wendong agreed, "Okay, buy a bigger plot of land, make the ground floor of the hotel more spacious, add some greenery, etc. But we can't ignore the height either. The higher the height, the better the view and the better the feeling for customers, so you need to find a balance in this regard."
Zheng Zhijie smiled and said, "I understand. If that's the case, then we have to ask Bei Jinming to design it carefully."
"Sure, the design of the Kangle Building has been completed anyway, and we don't need him to personally follow the construction later." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Let him design a high-end hotel for us in the United States.
However, the climate in Los Angeles is not very good, so we must pay attention to wind protection, fire prevention, and energy saving. Hotels have higher requirements in these aspects than office buildings."
The requirements for large hotels are naturally higher than those for office buildings. This is why many Hong Kong real estate developers like to build office buildings. Hotel management is too cumbersome and a waste of energy. It is enough for large conglomerates to just show their appreciation.
Zheng Zhijie nodded and said, "Okay, there is also the issue of water. Los Angeles has always been short of water, and our hotel also needs to pay attention to it."
"Lack of water?" Yang Wendong immediately thought of the famous fire in his previous life;
In fact, it’s not that Los Angeles has no water at all. If that were the case, it would be a natural disaster and there is nothing that can be done about it. The core reason is that half of the water in Los Angeles is controlled by a large capitalist family, which then uses it to grow pistachios on a large scale and then sells them to the mainland.
There was a joke on the Internet at that time: Every pistachio you eat is burning the mansions of the rich in Los Angeles~
If I need to invest large amounts of money in Los Angeles in the future, I will have to consider this issue.
Then Yang Wendong said, "You Qi, can you help me check the water use situation in Los Angeles, or water rights, whether it is possible to build a reservoir by ourselves, and similar questions."
In the future, my electronic technology research, hotels, Best Buy chain headquarters, entertainment industry or other business departments in the United States are very likely to be in Los Angeles.
The other problems are easy to solve. Even if you can’t make money from the land, it cannot be burned, so we still need to pay attention to the water aspect.
A day later, Lin Youcheng brought the information he had found: "Mr. Yang, the water supply in Los Angeles is indeed a bit tight now, but there has basically been no major drought, and there are still many reservoirs. So far, the Los Angeles government has done a good job in this regard."
"Oh? How is agriculture in Los Angeles now?" Yang Wendong asked again.
Lin Youqi said: "Agriculture? Not very developed. Because the city has developed too fast, agriculture has also been greatly affected."
"Okay, that's it for now. Also, keep an eye on the farms and water rights here. If appropriate, we also need to buy some." Yang Wendong said with a smile.
Things will look different 50 years from now than they do now, as water in Los Angeles has not yet been monopolized;
You don't need to prevent this monopoly giant from emerging, but you just need to protect your own interests.
PS: Ask for monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)