663 million invested in Qianjiang Century City, JD Regional Center heavily invests in Hangzhou

On April 20, the latest land transfer information published by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Resources Online Trading Center sparked a new wave of industry attention regarding offline asset deployment by internet giants.

The information shows that Hangzhou JD Jiwei Information Technology Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Beijing JD Century Trading Co., Ltd., successfully won a riverfront commercial land parcel with a starting price of about 663 million yuan.

The land parcel being transferred, Century City Core Unit XS010101-08, is bordered by Asian Games Village Road to the east, Wei Er Road to the south, Guanlan Road to the west, and Wei Yi Road to the north, adjacent to Metro Line 6. The west side of the plot is about 160 meters from the Qiantang River, and the south side is about 150 meters from the Asian Games Village Metro Station and Asia-Olympic Mixc, showing notable locational advantages.

Transfer information indicates the parcel's usage is for commercial purposes and compatible with business and financial (industrial) land. The area transferred is 26,297 square meters, with a floor area ratio of 4.5, a buildable area of about 118,300 square meters, and building height controlled between 15 and 100 meters.

This acquisition is not a routine commercial real estate transaction, but rather a decisive step for JD.com in Zhejiang's regional center planning, moving from “paper agreements” to “physical implementation.”

Tracing the progress of this strategy reveals that JD has been planning heavy asset deployment in Hangzhou for some time.

As early as June 2025, JD Group signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement with the government of Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou, outlining deep collaboration intentions in regional centers, modern logistics, and comprehensive retail sectors.

By end of December that same year, JD’s Zhejiang regional center opened in advance at the Elephant International Center in Qianjiang Century City, with transitional operations. Securing an exclusive parcel this time means that the center’s true home base will arrive soon.

Public information and parcel transfer conditions show the project is planned for a total investment of about 2 billion yuan. More stringent, the parcel must be held 100% as a whole, and cannot be split or transferred within 40 years.

Meanwhile, related agreements stipulate clear thresholds for annual business revenue and total retail sales of consumer goods over certain cycles.

This sends a strong signal: JD is not making a short-term financial investment, but is determined to establish long-term and deep-rooted business operations in Hangzhou.

In the future, the regional center is expected to accommodate more than 4,000 employees. It will not only be an office hub, but also comprehensively integrate JD Retail, JD MALL, Logistics, Health, and Technology core business segments.

From a strategic layout perspective, JD’s heavy investment in Hangzhou, known as the "Capital of E-Commerce," reflects multidimensional long-term considerations.

First, internal ecosystem synergy: gathering previously dispersed business lines within a unified physical space can significantly reduce cross-departmental communication and operation costs, thus forming a joint force for business facing the Yangtze River Delta.

Secondly, omnichannel layout is one of JD’s core strategies in recent years. Planned "JD MALL" and other super offline commercial entities will help further close the loop of online and offline appliance, home, and 3C retail in East China's vibrant market.

Additionally, Hangzhou gathers a high density of domestic e-commerce, livestreaming, and supply chain talents. A high-standard regional physical headquarters will directly enhance JD's local talent attraction, providing continuous intellectual support for future business expansion.

Objectively, against the backdrop of the internet industry shifting from lightweight asset traffic dividends to heavy asset refined operations, JD's move follows the overall trend of returning to localization and physical entity operations.

Looking further, JD's land acquisition in Hangzhou is just one important part of its increased layout in the Yangtze River Delta. In November 2025, JD successfully won the NO.Ning2025Y05 parcel in Nanjing, Jiangsu, and officially established JD Group’s Nanjing R&D Center in Jianye Hexi Central Innovation Zone, adjacent to headquarters of top companies like Alibaba and Xiaomi.

This project is positioned as JD Group’s regional headquarters, aiming to build a 10 billion-level regional center and a ten-thousand-person R&D center, supporting dual functions of headquarters office and R&D, and focusing on gathering talent in AI, robotics, unmanned driving, and other frontier fields.

In Wuxi, JD is also frequently active.

JD's Wuxi Intelligent Supply Chain Industrial Park / Regional Settlement Center project is sited in Huishan District with a total investment of 2.5 billion yuan, and will build a landmark intelligent supply chain interfacing Wuxi and radiating across Southern Jiangsu; the first-phase project of 95,000 square meters has been completed.

Moreover, the JD Wolf Robotics Global Intelligent Factory project has also been established in Wuxi Xishan District, planned to become a high ground for Yangtze River Delta robot intelligent manufacturing industry.

In March 2026, the second expansion of the Harvest JD Storage Logistics Closed-End Infrastructure REIT was launched, intending to acquire three high-standard warehousing projects in Beijing Daxing Airport, Kunming Airport, and Guangzhou Huadu Airport with a combined construction area of about 270,000 square meters.

Together with the purchase of office floors in Hong Kong's core Central district, JD is building a full-chain asset matrix from core city headquarters to regional logistics hubs.

Back to the local land acquisition in Hangzhou, JD also faces some challenges. Hangzhou, as the base camp of Alibaba, is also a gathering place for many emerging e-commerce and livestream platforms, so the business competition in the area is extremely fierce.

JD's heavy deployment with a land transfer price of over 600 million yuan and a total investment of 2 billion yuan reflects not only its confidence in its supply chain system and operational capability, but also the real challenge of how to break through in the heart of competition.

This integrated business base, combining office, technology, and omnichannel retail, whether it can operate efficiently as expected in the future and convert physical space integration into actual market share increase, still needs further verification by the market and time.

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