Building a dream factory for Shanghai's creative set(2)

The Dream Center is expected to be completed in 2017 and will consist of 12 cultural venues, interconnected by eight themed plazas and a riverfront promenade. Provided to China Daily

To Li Ruigang, founder and chairman of CMC Capital Partners, the center is the result of an idea that started with a phone call two years ago from Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, who suggested they work together to create Oriental Dreamworks.

"The project we are working on is aimed at building up a platform, providing room for people from the cultural business to showcase their talents and gifts and gathering talents. It is my dream to establish a cultural icon on the east end of the Pacific Ocean," Li says.

Katzenberg hopes to build the Dream Center into a gathering place for young people and tourists all over the world.

He hopes it will become "a center of great creativity, a magnet for great artists, performers, singers and storytellers to come here and work here, and to be able to showcase their works, and for it to be a stage for all China and for all of the world.

"I think it is an opportunity for us to create probably one of the most unique studios that exist anywhere in the world," Katzenberg says.

"Not only will we be able to design and build a world-class, state-of-the-art, best of class animation and technology center, but we will be surrounded by this incredible entertainment platform for us to be able to show the work we create and to attract other artists. I don't think there is any other place like this anywhere in the world."

Oriental Dreamworks came to Shanghai two years ago. It boasts an animation studio that accommodates 150 artists and animators. That number is expected to rise to 400 by the end of next year.