I shouldn't say all of Vietnam because despite having lived here for over 5 years, I haven't really seen very much of the country. I can only speak for Da Nang, where I live, and how no matter where you go there is construction going on.
A few kilometers south of where I live, there is a portion of beachfront that is relatively unused and it is also one of the only places where the buildings have their own beachfront. In the metro area where I live, all of the buildings, even the fancy hotels, are on the opposite side of the beachfront street and I guess this is a good thing.
But down a bit out of town there is a ton of land that isn't really used all that much but if you think that this is going to stop people from building there, you would be terribly wrong.
I was on a walk yesterday and found this absolutely massive building that they developers simply walked away from.
This is/was many things and you can see at the top of the building the words "Marriott" appears. You probably know this name because it is one of the largest hotel chains in the world. If you look to the right of this picture you will see something even taller, and we will get to that in a minute.
Most of the Marriott complex appears as though it was never even finished and I don't know if it was ever open because it has been closed since the day I moved here.
Walking down the beach access road next to it, which is actually very well maintained, you can see that there are construction materials still stored in the sides there. There were multiple security guards around the property, even though it is mostly non functional.
This is the same structure but right along the beach. There are multiple unfinished areas that appear as though they were going to be swimming pools because that's what you put there, right?
The only part of this facility that is open in any capacity is the fledgling "shopping mall" that is only partially open and from what I could tell is only used to bring by busloads of tourists to the duty-free shop.
It says "now open" and it is, but only at 1 of the 4 entrances. When I walked past I could see that almost all of the stores didn't even have anything in them and I just don't understand why they bother to be open at all. This building apparently had a movie theater in it as well but that has never been operational since I moved here. It's basically just a gigantic ghost of building that nobody has anything to do with and there doesn't appear to be any real inclination to revitalize that. Which is what makes what I am going to feature next and referenced in the first photo so perplexing.
This megastructure that is 25 stories tall and had probably 400 rooms in it is still under construction. It is likely the largest hotel in the entire region and is right on the beach. The thing that gets me about this build is that it is directly next door to the shuttered Marriott that we just looked at.
I guess I just don't understand people with money because since this entire area is derelict and abandoned, what on earth would compel someone to spend what has to be hundreds of millions of dollars on doing essentially exactly the same thing? To me this would be like building a super fancy, and super-expensive brand new resort on the beach of Atlantic City, where nobody really ever goes to anymore.
Also, the beach and ocean directly behind it, isn't anything to get excited about. It is also located far enough from the main town that the people staying here, when they do, are going to be too far away to actually walk to do anything else. There is literally nothing in this area.
I would like to believe that when someone does actually open this thing that they will put some real effort into cleaning up the beach area behind it but as it stands now it is absolutely filthy and the waves that come in have a sort of trash froth to them that would definitely keep me out of the water.
I hope it can beautify the area but the people next door seemed to realize pretty early on that this area wasn't any good for this purpose, so I just don't get how investors come in with HUGE amounts of money and then just do the same thing that has already failed in the same area. What's the logic here?
It is wild to think of the planning and financial work that would go into even purchasing the land for development. Then, to have so solid a plan to start and make huge progress in the development, only to be stopped by some anomaly you didn’t account for. Wild to consider finances at that level.
You have mentioned the corruption with government and authorities there in the past. Perhaps permits were rescinded in a grift aimed at the wealthy developers? A big change in the economy or liquidity position of the corporation?
Sucks to see such waste and the bad state of the water. Maybe it will be completed properly in a new phase and the beach will get that cleanup.
There are other factors at play such as the infamous "Vingroup" here in Vietnam. Look them up sometime if you get a chance. They are basically Wal-Mart but instead of only being in retail they have their hands in just about anything. They are enormous and don't really leave any space for competition. This hotel / shopping mall wasn't Vingroup and there is always the possibility that Vin forced them out before it was done because they didn't kiss the ring.
Wow a company founded in Ukraine in the 90s with a broad portfolio of technology, industry, real estate development, retail AND services from healthcare to hospitality? More than 1% of the GDP of Vietnam seems substantial enough to cause a halt at that late phase and purchase it for pennies on the dollar.
Such a shame. I remember seeing many of these failed projects on my last visit to Da Nang. Some of the failed hotels look like they could have been very beautiful if the developers had just finished them. To my understanding, even the finished developments are only ever partially occupied. It doesn't seem like it would be worthwhile to try and keep building more. I say tear down the failed developments or open the greatest paintball park this side of the Mississippi haha
I should walk around and count the buildings that they did half of and just walked away. There have to be dozens of them just in my neighborhood.
I remember thinking about how much more beautiful the city would be if you replaced those buildings with public parks or gardens. It is also sad to consider how many young Vietnamese families probably lost their savings on these failed investments. I wonder if any of the developers were ever punished for misleading investors.
Surely this will have to be completed because even if it is in the wrong area you can make it the right area by adding other things. Completing this will change the dynamics of the beach front just by how many tourists will be staying here and what may seem like the wrong end of the beach will be come the right end.
Perhaps that is the hope at some point. The areas up where I live are completely full in that there is basically no open spaces anymore and there is a market for people that want to be near a beach but not in the middle of a damn beeping city all the time as well. The market doesn't exist yet but perhaps Vietnam is pushing for more international tourism and us peons like me simply don't know about it because why would they tell me?
same here in my country there are so many establishments that are standing yet it is not functional, there are so many unfinished infrastructures. and it remains questionable because there are unfinished and yet they keep on building new. same as here some malls has fewer stalls and people.
Wow, that is pretty crazy. Maybe it is going to be some sort of all inclusive resort where you don't really need to leave the area if you don't want to. That still just seems kind of boring to me. Perhaps it's just a way to launder money at this point? :)
I always suspect money laundering when I see stuff like this. The work on the new one is moving very slowly and this leads me to believe that they don't really have any intention of ever finishing it. It's like a lot of wars... it's not meant to be won, just sustained.
Haha, yeah, that sounds about right. I do think it is interesting that the one is/was tied to Marriott though. It seems like they would have a pretty big focus on them so funneling money through something like that would be hard. Unless it was just for show and it really has no ties to the Marriott brand.
It’s strange the way projects keep getting funded in areas where similar developments have already failed. You’d think past failures would make investors more cautious, but somehow the cycle continues, sadly
well if one of them can be successful I already know what will happen because it happens everywhere here. If one of these companies manages to break through and become popular, the areas around it will almost immediately get similar things until there are so many of them that none of them can get any customers.
yes you're right and the cycle continues elsewhere sadly
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