Almost half the Carrianna Friendship Square in Luohu District is expected to be reconstructed into a innovation and entrepreneurship center for the young Hong Kong and Macao citizens in Shenzhen, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.
According to Carrianna Group Holdings Co. Ltd., the group plans to rebuild part of its property into a center consisting of a 5,000-square-meter venue for snooker games on the first basement floor and a 7,000-square-meter entrepreneurship base on the first and second floors.
The property, with an area of 28,100 square meters, was completed in 1998. The commercial complex was an ideal meeting place in Shenzhen for those Hong Kong investors traveling across the Luohu Checkpoint.
Ma Hung Ming is the executor of the renovation project. He is vice chairman of the Carrianna Group and son of Ma Kai Cheung, the founder and honorary chairman of the group.
Since the time Ma Kai Cheung invested in the first textile and garment factory in Huangbeilingcun, Luohu in 1984, the father and son have formed deep bonds with Shenzhen.
Four years later, Ma Kai Cheung decided to introduce his Carrianna restaurant business from Hong Kong to Shenzhen. With confidence in Shenzheners’ appetite for delicious food, he opened the first Carrianna Chaozhou Cuisine Restaurant in Hotel Oriental Regent, Luohu while also retaining Hong Kong’s customary restaurant decoration and dishes for the Shenzhen branch. The restaurant business soon thrived and expanded to other cities at home and abroad. Carrianna, which sounds like “one of us” in Chaozhou dialect, became the first multinational Chinese cuisine brand.
In the future, the father and son will explore opportunities for duty-free cross-border e-commerce business.