NO ONE IN their right mind would choose to open Europe’s largest urban shopping centre in a deprived area of east London just when the economy is teetering on the brink of renewed recession.
But when Westfield Stratford City was on the drawing board, the future looked a lot brighter for Britain in 2011 – and in 2012, the year the Olympics come to London.
Crowds flocked to the opening of the new £1.4 billion shopping centre in Stratford yesterday but it was more for the launch-day giveaways, the celebrity appearances or the chance to have their photos taken with the Olympic Torch rather than to spend money many of them do not have.
Westfield, with more than 300 shops and 70 bars and restaurants, is uniquely linked with the 2012 games.
The centre acts as a gateway to the Olympic Park and some 70 per cent of the spectators will pass through it on their way to the events, which will be shown on giant screens throughout the complex.
The potential of the games and the free-spending tourists they will attract has ensured a good start for the massive 1.9 million square foot shopping complex, which managed to let 95 per cent of its retail space in time for the launch, anchored by top-quality tenants such as Marks Spencer, John Lewis and Waitrose.
For John Lewis, the four-storey Stratford store is the first it has opened in London in 20 years, while MS’s shop is its third-largest in the UK and one that will showcase the new look being rolled out by chief executive Marc Bolland as part of the retailer’s latest £600 million revamp.
There is no doubting the boost that Westfield has brought to Stratford – the complex employs 10,000 people in retail jobs, many of whom were previously long-term unemployed.
As well as the shops, bars and restaurants, there are three hotels, a 17-screen cinema and a 14-lane bowling alley. A casino, the largest in the country, will also be open at Westfield by the end of the year.
An estimated £4 million was spent in the first few hours of trading at the £1.45 billion Westfield Stratford City mall next to the Olympic Park in London. The US clothing retailer Forever 21 was forced to open its doors prior to the official 10am opening time for health and safety reasons after a queue of around 500 people gathered outside the shop.
Organisers said that thousands more shoppers than expected had attended the opening.
Olympic chiefs, business leaders and politicians hope that the centre, which has 250 shops and 70 restaurants, will form a major part of the regeneration of a deprived area of London. Around 2,000 of the 10,000 permanent jobs created at the centre have gone to the local unemployed. Including the investment in the Olympic Park, over £14 billion of private and public sector money will be pumped into Stratford in the coming years.
Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, said that Stratford is undergoing its most significant period of regeneration “since the Middle Ages”. He described the Westfield centre as a rebuttal to Geoffrey Chaucer who “dared to speak of what he perceived as the cultural backwardness of Stratford” in The Canterbury Tales in “1380 or thereabouts”.
Sir Terence Conran, the furniture designer, said that the redevelopment of the east of London is very important.
“Things are moving east. Obviously the Olympics will have a big impact. The place is extraordinary,” he said.
With the consumer economy on its knees, the opening of provided some rare relief to retailers.
Michael Gutman, the managing director of Westfield in the UK, Europe and emerging markets, said that there is “genuine excitement and anticipation” about the centre locally, although he acknowledged that it is opening at a time when the economy is tricky. However he said that when Westfield’s last London centre opened - in Shepherd’s Bush in 2008 – the economy was equally difficult.
“I think there is a sense of déjà vu about the opening. When we stood at the opening of Westfield [in Shepherd’s Bush] in 2008 around the time of the Lehman Brothers crash, the timing could not have been worse. But for the last three years we have had double digit growth at that centre,” he said.
The first John Lewis department store in east London appeared to provide a major draw to locals. Mary-Anne Elliston, a 35-year-old Stratford resident, said that she used to have to travel to Oxford Street to visit a branch of the chain.
“It is great that John Lewis has come here. I am really excited. I used to have to go to the West End,” she said.
However not all retailers were impressed. The chief executive of a large UK chain said that it was far too early to tell whether Westfield Stratford’s initial popularity will translate to a sustained success story. He also pointed out that many retailers, including Forever 21, were giving away goods for free, which attracted more customers than might otherwise have been the case.
No comments:
Post a Comment