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Urban renewal is extensively practiced around the world and has attracted substantial attention among scholars and the public. To ensure that urban renewal is directed toward sustainable development goals, sustainability assessments for urban renewal projects have become critical topics. Simultaneously, the ex ante evaluation research of urban renewal projects has not received enough academic attention, and most results have not fully considered the localization of criteria and the internal correlation between criteria/dimensions. Therefore, this paper proposes an ex ante decision model for the sustainability assessment of urban renewal projects based on a hybrid multiple-attribute decision-making (MADM) approach, which includes 3 dimensions and 16 criteria. It uses a case in Guangzhou to assess the sustainable potential of the project and explore relevant improvement strategies. Empirical results from the Decision Testing and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) indicate that the economic (D1) and environment (D2) dimensions both impact the social and cultural (D3) dimensions, with the environment (D2) dimension being impacted by the economic (D1) dimension. The criteria occupying the “cause” position include reducing construction costs and materials expenses (C5), increasing greening configuration and open space (C6), reducing resource consumption and waste (C8), improving existing land-use efficiency (C2), promoting the biodiversity of space (C9), and strengthening the safety of pedestrians and residents (C15), where increasing greening configurations and open space (C6) and reducing resource consumption and waste (C5) are considered the key criteria based on the results of DEMATEL and the DEMATEL-Analytic Network Process (DANP). The modified VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method revealed that the economic (D1) dimension has poor performance, and its improvement needs to be prioritized. Further improvement strategies are proposed based on the influence network relationship graph (INRM). In conclusion, our results show that urban community renewal projects in Guangzhou are steadily progressing toward a sustainable vision.

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