China's Wanda Group, which owns AMC Theaters, is spending $1 billion to build a five-star hotel in New York City, becoming a new addition to the recent Chinese investment wave in the Big Apple's real-estate market.

Wang Jianlin, chairman of the Dalian-based commercial real estate developer, told Reuters in Beijing that the company is in talks with potential partners to build a Wanda hotel and an adjacent apartment building in New York.

The chairman said the project will probably be announced in the third quarter of this year "if everything goes smoothly".