On the west bank of the Pujiang River, Xuhui Riverside is the most public vitality and artistic waterfront new urban area in the city.
On the east bank of the Pujiang River, Pudong Qiantan, it is an international and dynamic new city where the headquarters of multinational enterprises gather.
Started almost at the same time, overall planning and continuous development. These two of Shanghai's hottest emerging districts in the past decade are fulfilling their blueprints.
The West Bund of Xuhui is not only about art
The good drama on the west bank of Xuhui is being staged one after another.
The public's first impression of the West Bank is, of course, the arts and culture and the waterfront public space.
After more than ten years of development, the West Bund has become the most densely populated area of cultural venues on both sides of the Pujiang River, with more than 20 cultural and artistic venues such as the Long Museum, the West Bund Art Museum, the West Bund Art Center, the Tank Art Center, the West Bund Dome Art Center, and the West Bund Grand Theater. Not only is it a gathering place for art lovers to check in, but on the basis of a strong artistic atmosphere, the West Bund has also become a venue for new product launches and important shows of fashion brands. The West Bund Arts and Culture Season, which has been held for many years, has integrated the region into a high-concentration cultural and artistic field.
On weekends and holidays, it is not only the art venues on the West Bund that are crowded, but also the public spaces along the West Bund that are crowded. Outdoor sports, pets, music, camping, the West Bank Riverside on weekends gathers citizens of all ages. According to media reports, 500,000 square meters of open space and 100,000 square meters of waterfront platforms have been built along the West Bank, with a record 40,000 visitors per day. The West Bund waterfront public space has become the most dynamic waterfront destination and urban public space in Shanghai, and has a high degree of overlap with the audience of cultural and art venues.
Culture and art have created a unique site tonality for the West Bund, and have also gained long-term online and offline traffic. Of course, the huge West Bank is not only home to art, but also industry is the foundation of the West Bank.
The West Coast has laid out six million-level industrial clusters of "one port, one valley, one city, one bay and one heart", and has built an industrial ecology with digital economy, life and health, cultural creativity, and modern finance as the main body, and has gathered the Yangtze River Delta Headquarters of China Central Radio and Television and Shanghai Terminus, Tencent East China Headquarters, NetEase Shanghai R&D Center, Alibaba New Retail Center, Qizhi Research Institute, Microsoft Research Asia (Shanghai), Huawei Kunpeng, SenseTime and other industry leading enterprises and research institutions have not only enhanced the degree of industrial agglomeration, but also provided a stable consumer base for regional businesses.
Overall, the West Bank has a total planned area of 13.4 million square meters, which is one of the largest new areas along the Pujiang River, with rich business forms and a large number of industrial remains, so the development cycle is relatively long among several riverside plates. Among them, the Media Port, Financial City, and Digital Valley groups are expected to be fully presented during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. Three new million-level industry groups of thermal show, life blue bay and digital intelligence center will also appear one after another.
According to the fourth quarter of 2023 released by the International, Xuhui Binjiang has about 560,000 square meters of Grade A office stock, with a vacancy rate of nearly 30.6%. Judging from the current overall development progress, the West Bank will have a larger volume of incremental office space launched year by year, which is also a big challenge for China Merchants Leasing. Similarly, the West Bank has also developed many high-end residential projects such as Yunjin Oriental, which together with the original Shanghai Bay Mansion and Parkway Garden, form a new luxury residential area along the riverside, which is also an important regional consumer group.
West Bund Commercial, a distinctive waterfront commercial cluster
11.4 kilometers along the riverside, the west bank already has a lot of existing commercial stock, and the next few years will be more interesting for new projects, which can be described as full of stamina and worth looking forward to.
If the opening of the West Bund Group's first commercial flagship project, AI PLAZA, is used as a symbol, the business of the entire area can be roughly divided into two phases.
Relatively early, for example, in the area of Dong'an Road on the north side of the West Bank, there are many shopping malls such as Xuhui Greenland Colorful City, Poly Time Lane, Zhengda Lecheng, Sunshine Riverside Tiandi Shangwanli, etc., most of which are mature businesses that have been open for more than 5 years, and have formed a small business district for surrounding residents and office white-collar workers. Among them, the continuously updated first store brand of Greenland Colorful City and the differentiated artistic tonality of Poly Time can have a cross-regional influence. Yunjin Road on the south side of the west bank also had supporting businesses such as Greenland GRC Greenland Binjiang Club and China Eastern Airlines Yunjin Tiandi in the early days, and the operation was relatively average.
Opened at the end of 2021, AI PLAZA West Bund Phoenix Nest is West Bund Group's first commercial flagship project. In the 75,000-square-meter commercial space, the labels of "art exhibition", "pet friendly" and "parent-child family" create a relaxed social field. It is worth mentioning that AI PLAZA West Bund Phoenix Nest often links with the region to launch activities such as IP and art exhibitions, and the project's self-created market IP "West Bund Good Market" also inputs a variety of fresh commercial content such as coffee and pets to the region to grow together.
There will be a number of projects in the West Bank area in the near future. For example, the newly opened Xingyang West Bund Center, a Henderson Land complex project with a commercial volume of about 26,000 square meters, is currently mainly tea, light meals, fitness, automobile formats and pop-up stores, and the opening rate and customer flow need to grow.
With two theaters, renovation of industrial relics, waterfront commerce, cultural tourism genes, and the first urban waterfront market, Gate M West Bund Dream Center, which has been endowed with many labels, is perhaps the most distinctive one of the projects to be opened this year.
In the preparatory period, Gate M has interpreted the concept of business and space through a number of micro-films, and has held a number of community and market activities with brands such as Patagonia, On, Tigerhood, and Silver Salt Retro Market. From the choice of cooperative brands, you can clearly understand the outdoor sports and lifestyle that the project will create.
Sure enough, according to the brand information that has been announced, Gate M West Bund Dream Center will introduce a series of outdoor anchor stores and unique brands, such as Molifornia by Moreprk with 1,500 square meters of outdoor space, rock time climbing and outdoor sports brand Patagonia with 2,000 square meters of rock face.
The DreamWorks warehouse, which was converted from a former cement factory warehouse, is also worth paying attention to. Gate M West Bund Dream Center will make full use of the expansive architectural space of DreamWorks to create the first urban waterfront market in China. The third floor, with a height of 14 meters and a view of the river, will be used as a place for fashion and art content.
Following the artistic genes of the West Bund, Gate M West Bund Dream Center has created a landmark performance format, not only the dome art center with a capacity of 2,000 people and the "double theater" configuration of the 1600+200 West Bund Grand Theater, but also the introduction of 2,200 square meters of tile VAS LIVEHOUSE and immersive drama bar, building a rare waterfront cultural performance matrix in Shanghai, making the art form of the West Bund more diversified from exhibitions, easy to perceive, experience and consume.
In addition to these first batch of brand lists, with a total construction area of about 162,000 square meters, Gate M West Bund Dream Center will also gather national debuts, fashion, waterfront catering and other formats.
The non-standard business close to the front line of Pujiang is already full of imagination. At present, Gate M West Bund Dream Center has also met the conditions for promotion to phenomenal business. What's more, Gate M West Bund Dream Centre will inject new content into West Bund with new content of boutique retail and art performances, making West Bund not only a space for exhibitions and sports, but also a destination for consumption and lifestyle, further enhancing the regional vitality of West Bund.
The West Bund City will be another major business attraction in the West Bund. As one of the six million-level industrial clusters in the West Bank, the West Bank Financial City has a total development area of about 1.8 million square meters and an investment of more than 60 billion yuan, including 650,000 square meters of office and business clusters, 240,000 square meters of integrated retail ecology, 160,000 square meters of high-end residential apartments, five luxury hotels of 50,000 square meters, and cultural and art venues, which are expected to be completed in 2027.
The huge volume can accommodate more diverse business formats. Specifically, the commercial and cultural formats of West Bund Financial City will present a shopping mall, a waterfront flagship store cluster, an art and design district, a renovated century-old Nanpu railway station and courtyard, as well as a city planetarium, a seed museum and other diversified forms of "exhibition, show, entertainment and shopping".
At present, the first public art building in the West Bund Financial City, "West Bund Vortex Heart Orbit", and the former "Nanpu Station" renovated "Qidian 1907" have been opened. The commercial sector will also use Hongkong Land's "Central" to create the highest level of urban mixed-use development, which is worth looking forward to.
/ Some of the pictures are from the Internet, invaded and deleted