A project to renovate Phan Dinh Phung Sports Center at a prime location in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City to make it a modern sports facility meeting international standards has been abandoned for 13 years.

Cao Thanh Binh, head of the cultural and social affairs division, under the municipal People’s Council, said the project is a typical example of ineffective adoption of the public investment method.

The Phan Dinh Phung Sports Center, bounded by four inner-city streets, including Pasteur, Nguyen Dinh Chieu, Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, and Vo Van Tan, used to be a regular destination for cultural and sports activities among city dwellers.

The center was anticipated to have seven stories, three basements, span an area of over 14,400 square meters, and be able to house some 4,000 people after being renovated.

Work on the renovation project was scheduled to start in March 2010 after the prime minister approved the build-transfer (BT) method for it in 2008.

It was among a few projects that got the government leader’s green light to be executed under BT contracts, which came to a halt in 2019.

The project carried the initial price tag of VND988 billion (US$41.9 million), with Compensation Clearance Corporation and An Tao Co. Ltd. being the developers.

Besides, the city suggested using a plot of land at 257 Tran Hung Dao in Co Giang Ward, District 1 to make payment for the developers.

In 2011, An Tao Company withdrew from the project, whose total investment was revised up to over VND1.352 trillion ($57.4 million) in 2013 and nearly VND1.954 trillion ($82.2 million) in 2016.

The city set aside three more plots of land in District 1, Binh Thanh District, and Thu Duc City to make payment for the developer, but only the land lot at 257 Tran Hung Dao Street got the prime minister’s nod to serve this purpose.

In early 2017, the sports center's arena was dismantled for the project to get off the ground.

One year later, the municipal administration appointed a consortium of Compensation Clearance Corporation and Phat Dat Real Estate Development JSC to develop the project.

The city last year formed a working group led by the municipal Department of Planning and Investment to seek measures to remove obstacles hindering the project, but it has remained deserted since.

Below are some photos of the abandoned Phan Dinh Phung renovation project:

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