In 2020, BSC Group, a design-led diversified property company, marks its 20th year. Guided by a philosophy that puts people first, values integrity, does good and dares to lead, BSC has grown rapidly and by leaps.
As one of Tangshan's best-known large local developers, BSC has been shifting its attention from the scale of its portfolio to the quality within it. On 15 May, the BSC Majestic Palace project signed a strategic partnership with Greentown Property Service, raising the standard of living in Fengnan District, Tangshan.
iFeng Property recently sat down with BSC Group chairman Hu Jian for an exclusive interview to explore the thinking behind the partnership and the deeper reasons for BSC's longevity.
After many voyages, the vision remains
Hu Jian, founder and chairman of BSC Group
On a Saturday morning the iFeng Property team arrived as arranged at BSC Plaza in Tangshan. In the chairman's office we met Hu Jian outside working hours for the first time. Born in the late 1970s, he came across as decisive and composed, exacting yet approachable, and after a few pleasantries we moved straight into the interview.
Hu Jian is open about the fact that his career as a local property entrepreneur did not begin in property. In 1994 he co-founded Zhongyuan Advertising and Decoration; in 2000 he entered property sales agency and set up Chenggong Real Estate; along the way he also worked in steel logistics, travel agency and clothing. Although that experience does not transfer directly to development, he says those six varied years taught him a great deal.
By 2004 Hu Jian owned a chain of 17 property brokerage outlets and decided to move up into development. That year, through Chenggong Real Estate, he acquired the site of the Lunan District People's Hat Factory and turned it into IGO Shopping Center, a fashion and bargain-hunting mall that became the star retail property of the year, strong in both leasing and sales. The project is still leased and trading well today.
IGO Shopping Center
BSC Plaza, Tangshan
Building on that successful conversion, Hu Jian founded BSC Real Estate in 2006 and entered development in earnest. He told us that BSC's property business expanded from Tangshan's districts and counties to a national footprint, including Hebei, Jilin and Shandong, before settling on Tangshan and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as its long-term focus, a choice rooted in the company's strong attachment to its home town.
"To provide the people of Tangshan with homes of assured quality, and to let our future residents enjoy a good life, is a great honour," Hu Jian said.
Strong partners deliver the best result
In Hu Jian's view, property is an industry with many specialised fields, and when a developer cannot excel at all of them it should partner well to arrive at the best product.
Greentown Property Service's arrival at BSC Majestic Palace on 15 May both raises the project's future standard of living and opens a new model of development based on partnerships between strong players.
Hu Jian (left) with Wu Zhihua (right), chief executive of Greentown Service
The signing ceremony
"Property management is becoming a specialised profession, and there is still a gap between the in-house teams local developers used to assemble and a brand like Greentown," Hu Jian said. "The best way to close that gap is to play to strengths: bring together the top teams in each field and combine them sensibly to create the greatest product value."
The entrance to the neighbourhood retail at Majestic Palace
Beyond bringing in Greentown, BSC Majestic Palace has been crafted with equal care in its details. Hu Jian cited the landscaping, designed by the well-known Beijing firm DDON. From leisure to sport, from the elderly to children, from equipment to planting, residents of every age can find a setting that suits them. A 600-metre luminous running track is aimed especially at younger, sport-minded buyers.
"BSC has always applied its pursuit of refined aesthetics to every part of its work, above all to project detail. We want residents to feel that care in every corner," Hu Jian said with pride.
Diversifying with an eye to the future
Asked about the future of the property market, Hu Jian is confident. First, he sees Tangshan as a city with strong investment prospects. Favourable Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei policy, combined with the rapid upgrading of Tangshan's urban functions, has lifted local housing demand, which is why the city's land market has recently seen several sites sell at floor prices above 10,000 yuan per square metre.
He added that dozens of leading national developers have now entered Tangshan, and their professional judgment amounts to a strong endorsement of the city today and high expectations for its future.
Second, he set out a new strategic direction for BSC. Property is capital intensive and a single product line cannot withstand market cycles, so years ago BSC began diversifying into cross-border e-commerce, biopharmaceuticals, business incubation, asset management and financial services.
Packaging for Wurongtang biopharmaceutical products
Wholefield Market, imported goods supermarket
In 2016 BSC was approved as one of Tangshan's first national-level maker spaces, and in 2019 it became the city's second national-level incubator. BSC Plaza in Lunan District subsequently set aside about 20,000
square metres of office space, which was approved as one of Hebei Province's first provincial-level innovation and entrepreneurship bases, giving young founders a platform to pursue their ambitions.
Hu Jian acknowledges that markets are unpredictable, and that today's generation born in the 1990s and 2000s has the sharpest instincts. Social and technological change will take its best shape in their hands. "What we do is create the best possible conditions for them to start businesses."
The maker space
"Twenty years of hard work built BSC's achievements, and we are confident of scaling new heights in the next twenty," Hu Jian said. "In the fast current of China's economic growth we want to look globally, keep sharpening ourselves, and make BSC one of the most solid foundations of its era."