From Sunshine 100 to Sunac China: The Opening of Chongqing Bay and Its Seven-Year Revitalization Journey

Sunac has spent seven years revitalizing Chongqing's "stagnant landmark" project.

On July 16, according to Sunac's official WeChat account, the first-phase residential property SKYONE of its Chongqing Bay project was officially launched recently. With sales performance of 181 units sold, 700 million yuan in revenue, and 28,000 square meters of floor area transacted, it has achieved the "Triple Crown" for the first opening of a Chongqing residential project in the past five years.

After acquiring an 80% equity stake in Chongqing Sunshine 100 from Sunshine 100 in 2019, Sunac simultaneously took over the two major plots of Chongqing Sunshine 100 International New Town and Ciyun Temple Old Street, and integrated them under the name Chongqing Bay.

At that time, the project was planned to be developed into a million-square-meter urban complex integrating high-end residences, commerce, and business offices. However, amid the industry downturn, combined with the company's own debt pressure and the complicated historical creditor disputes left over from the project, the development process stalled several times.

Now, with the project's first opening, Sunac has made phased progress in this stock revitalization project in Chongqing.

20 Years of Ups and Downs

The story of Sunac's Chongqing Bay dates back as early as 2003.

That year, Sunshine 100 arrived in Chongqing and established the Chongqing Yuneng YiBai joint venture platform with Yuneng Group, which led the old city reconstruction of Danzishi in Nan'an District, to participate in the operation of the Chongqing Sunshine 100 International New Town and the Ciyun Temple Old Street reconstruction plot.

Relying on the scarce location along the Two Rivers and Four Banks area and the geographical advantage of facing Chaotianmen across the river, Sunshine 100 initially planned to integrate the two major plots into a million-square-meter urban complex with a total permitted floor area of approximately 1.188 million square meters, connecting Jiefangbei, Jiangbeizui, and Danzishi to form an urban landmark along the two rivers in Chongqing.

Among them, Sunshine 100 International New Town is located in the prime area of Nanbin Road, covering an area of about 492.5 mu with a total floor area of about 1.2 million square meters, and is planned to be a complex integrating residences and commerce. The Ciyun Temple Old Street, situated in the core CBD where the Yangtze River and Jialing River meet, is the most completely preserved and largest national-level historical and cultural block in Chongqing. The plot covers about 75 mu with a floor area of 55,580 square meters.

The residential segment of the project advanced relatively early, and the residential clusters of Chongqing Sunshine 100 International New Town were completed and launched to the market one after another in 2009. However, constrained by multiple factors including cultural relic protection regulations, old city demolition and resettlement, and historical style renovation, the development progress of the Ciyun Temple Old Street plot lagged behind for a long time, and the project remained in a semi-stagnant state.

Due to insufficient traditional financing at that time, the project introduced Zhongrong International Trust to carry out structured financing in 2013, and transferred 72% of the equity of Chongqing Yuneng YiBai to the corresponding trust plan as risk control guarantee. It was not until 2015 that Sunshine 100 repurchased this part of the equity for 517 million yuan. After the transaction was completed, Chongqing Yuneng YiBai was officially renamed Chongqing Sunshine YiBai.

But two years later, facing a liquidity crisis, Sunshine 100 regarded asset disposal as one of the ways to raise funds for self-rescue, and the Chongqing Sunshine 100 International New Town and Ciyun Temple Old Street reconstruction plot became the core assets to be sold for the group to recover cash flow.

In 2017, Sunshine 100 announced a plan to transfer 80% of the equity of Chongqing Sunshine YiBai to Shenzhen Qianhai Aircraft Carrier Investment Management Co., Ltd. for a transaction consideration of 1.544 billion yuan, with payment to be completed in four installments. However, one month later, the equity transfer transaction was declared a failure because the final transferee failed to fulfill the contract on schedule.

It was not until April 1, 2019 that Sunshine 100 issued an official equity transfer announcement. Its wholly-owned subsidiary signed an equity transfer agreement with multiple parties including Sunac Southwest, Liaoning Sunshine 100, Yangpu Huadian, and Chongqing Sunshine YiBai.

According to the agreement, Sunshine 100 transferred 70% of the equity of Chongqing Sunshine 100 to Sunac Southwest for a transaction consideration of 370 million yuan, and simultaneously transferred the corresponding shareholder loans of 964 million yuan, bringing the total transaction amount to 1.334 billion yuan.

Before the transaction was completed, Sunshine 100, Yangpu Huadian, and Liaoyang Sunshine 100 held 86%, 10%, and 4% of the equity in the target company respectively. After the transaction, the shareholding ratios of Yangpu Huadian and Liaoyang Sunshine 100 remained unchanged. Sunac Southwest became the largest shareholder with a 70% stake, while Sunshine 100's shareholding was diluted to 16%.

At this point, Sunac took over the two major plots of Sunshine 100 International New Town and Ciyun Temple Old Street in their entirety, integrated and uniformly named them Chongqing Bay, continued the original plan to build a million-square-meter urban complex integrating high-end residences, commerce, and business offices, aiming to complete the core landmark landscape along the two rivers.

After Sunac Took Over

After the equity delivery of the plots, the originally grand development blueprint was not smoothly implemented. The overall downturn of the industry, coupled with the company's own capital pressure, as well as the overlapping of long-standing complicated creditor's rights and debt issues, demolition and resettlement conflicts, and legacy problems in land reserves, made the project's progress extremely difficult.

In the years after taking over Chongqing Bay, Sunac also fell into large-scale debt defaults, with its capital chain under pressure. The company's overall focus shifted to resolving the group's overall debt, and the revitalization of the Chongqing Bay project was naturally put on hold. The project was fully shut down around 2022.

With the gradual completion of debt restructuring in 2025, Sunac's strategic focus has shifted from "ensuring delivery" to stock revitalization and resuming operations.

In early 2025, Sunac adopted the mature path of stock revitalization it has used in recent years, cooperating with AMC institutions to inject incremental funds to promote the project out of trouble. With the support and guidance of the Nan'an District Government of Chongqing, Sunac joined hands with partners including China Great Wall Asset, China Merchants Bank, and CITIC Trust to reach a financing cooperation for the Chongqing Bay project.

Among them, Great Wall Asset plans to provide no more than 2.476 billion yuan in financial support for the project. Part of the funds will be used to sort out and replace the project's historical stock debts, stripping away the creditor disputes that have persisted for many years, and the other part will be used as new construction funds to ensure the continuous construction of subsequent projects.

At the same time, Great Wall Guofu Real Estate, a professional real estate operation platform under Great Wall Asset, has been deeply involved synchronously, taking full charge of supporting work such as project development supervision and brand operation empowerment. As a market-oriented operation entity, Sunac is responsible for the overall implementation of the project's development and operation.

In September of that year, Sunac announced that the first tranche of funds from China Great Wall Asset had arrived, and the construction of the Chongqing Bay project was officially launched. At that time, the total floor area of the remaining undeveloped plots of the project was about 1 million square meters, planned to cover multiple formats including residences, commerce, and offices. Among them, Plot A3, as the first cluster to start development, has a total floor area of about 450,000 square meters, and is planned to build modern-style riverside super high-rise high-end residences. The new products of the project were originally scheduled to be officially released from the end of 2025 to the beginning of 2026.

By mid-2026, the long-prepared first-phase residential property SKYONE of Chongqing Bay was officially launched. According to Sunac's official WeChat account, the first opening set a record for Chongqing's residential property opening in the past five years, with sales of 181 units, 700 million yuan in revenue, and 28,000 square meters of floor area transacted.

In its previous 2026 outlook, Sunac clearly stated that with the basic completion of the task of ensuring delivery and the conclusion of the work to resolve public market debt risks, introducing funds to revitalize problematic stock projects and resolve local debt risks of projects will become the group's core work for the whole year.

It is reported that since this year, Sunac has made continuous progress in multiple revitalization projects in core cities such as Chongqing, Beijing, Xi'an, Tianjin, and Wuhan.

At this year's shareholders' meeting, Sun Hongbin said that the industry may move toward a fund-like model in the future, where capital provides funds and real estate enterprises are responsible for development. The successful revitalization of Chongqing Bay may be a microcosm of this model being implemented.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Viewpoint", authored by Viewpoint New Media, and published with authorization by 36Kr.