Climate heats up for Bay Area-China ties - San Francisco Business Times:

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And the Bay Area is jockeying to play aleadinyg role. Much of China’s existing officre and residential space is inserious disrepair. But China is movingb quickly tofix this. By China is expected to renovate 25 percent of its residentialk and public buildings in Shanghai and othee large cities as well as 10 perceng to 15 percent insmallefr cities, according to an analysis from UK-basec public relations firm Weber Shandwick. China’s Buildingb Code, similar to the U.S. LEED green building standards, will create a green buildinbg design and materials markettotalling $1.5 trilliobn by 2020, according to ’s China’sd Clean Revolution report.
China also now accounts for 24 percen of annual global greenhousegas emissions, up from 7 percentf prior to 2002. New construction is one major The opportunityis obvious, said Aaron Singer, managinfg general partner of Sausalito-based , a research firm that connectas green building materials companies to funding. “Chinas is simply a gigantic, fertile marker for building technologies,” said Singer, who was in China last week scopingf for new technologies andinvestment opportunities. whose population is nearly thre e times theBay Area’s, is China’s largest city. And it is the promisedf land for developers.
Dozens of construction crane s dot the skyline from almostfevery view, replacing housing builyt in the 1930s with new highrises and high-end retail to accommodate new foreighn investors opening offices here, multinationals living here and a wealth y new business class. Other towera are being built on the outskirts of town to houses rural migrants employed in the city or thoss displaced bynew construction. Bay Area architects have been amongy the most visible professionals capitalizingon China’ss growth, with several Bay Area firms workingf on projects here. They include , and , which is designinbg the second-tallest building in the world inthe city.
Besidexs a new freedom Jeff Heller found in designingbthe 377,000-square-foot, 26-story tower that recently broke ground his first in China there’s a more immediate reason he’se opening a new office here: it’s whered the work is. “Because of the credit crisis, we have to be Heller said. Meanwhile San Francisco, througj the business association andother groups, has been workintg on forging transpacific partnerships with Shanghai that will make it easiere for Bay Area companies to develop and deploy thei technologies here. Last week, the Bay Area Councikl and Chinese real estate developer Shui On Land hostedf thefirst U.S.
China Green Tech San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom gave the keynotde address and announced the opening of a new economic development offic e that will help Chinese businesses open officezs inSan Francisco, the day before the conference About 400 business leaders, investors and policy makers from both the U.S. and China attendede the conference aimed atcreating clean-technology partnerships between China and the Unitedr States. “We think growth is really going to slow down inthe U.S. and we see our greatesrt opportunities in theglobao market,” said Mike Yahng, who runs ’z China office in Shanghai for .
It is vying to open a banking branch, which could take another two-and-a-halfd years. “If you don’t have a global platform today, you’rw really going to miss out.” A key playeer in the cross-pacific partnershipl development effort is real estatew developer Shui On whose giant luxury projects are transforminv Shanghai and other largeChinesee cities. David Nieh, a former Bay Area architectr and planner, now generaol manager for Shui On Land in said the company is pursuing strategic partnershipd across theglobe — but especially in the Bay “Shui On Land is really uniquelhy positioned to bring a lot of products and services integrated into our Nieh said.
“And once we start doint that on alarge scale, the marketx will start to demand it and people will follo w our lead. That starts this circle betweenthe U.S. and Shui On said it’s looking at productx by Serious Materials, a San Jose-based green buildin materials startup, and other technologies developedc in the Bay Area inenerguy efficiency, waste and water systems. The firm currently has entitlementes for 190 million square feet in eight developmentsacrossz China. Just one, in Chong Quinfg province, includes 99 40-story Given the scale of its projects, Shui On is a needle-mover on the environment.