Evergrande Group Photo: CFP

Some 39 buildings of the No.2 Island of the Ocean Flower Island, an artificial archipelago in Danzhou, South China's Hainan Province developed by China's debt ridden Evergrande Group will be repurposed, according to a notice seeking public comments published by the local government. 

According to the notice, the 39 buildings will no longer be residential properties, with all the buildings built and unsold being adjusted from residential to a mix of hotel, business and finance, retail commercial and catering, per the notice.

In January, the tourism development unit under Evergrande was ordered to remove the mega resort project in Danzhou within 10 days, which is the world's largest of its kind and the project covers 434,941.46 square meters, according to an administrative penalty notice issued by local authorities, citing the company's unlawful means of obtaining the required project certificate. 

Ocean Flower Island is a major project backed and developed by Evergrande in Hainan which attracted near 81 billion yuan ($11.2 billion) worth of investment after more than six years of construction, Evergrande Fairyland Group said in January in response to the administrative penalty notice.

A total of 668 delayed housing projects owned by Evergrande have resumed construction, in contrast to 38 projects which remain dormant, the developer said in September.

Domestic news portal guancha.cn reported in July that the company has sold several of its subsidiaries, five real estate projects and non-core assets for a return of about 45.8 billion yuan in order to get through the financial crisis over the past year.

Evergrande said in a filling on Sunday that receivers sold a plot of undeveloped land in Yuen Long, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for $637 million, while the company recorded a loss of approximately $770 million. The proceeds from the sale will be used to repay the company's financial obligations in relation to the project, per the notice.

Global Times