News16 Wednesday June 5, 2013

£1bn deal looks set to create a

An artist’s impression of the business quarter planned at Royal Albert Dock

A new East West gateway holds out the promise of 20,000 new jobs in borough

A £1bn deal to generate tens of thou-sands of jobs in the East End has been signed.

Docklands is set to become a ‘mini Hong Kong’ and the capital’s third fi-nancial quarter, after the City and Ca-nary Wharf, forging links with Asia.

Owned by the Greater London Au-thority, the 35-acre site at Royal Albert Dock will be transformed by commer-cial developer ABP Chinese (Holding) into a gateway for Asian and Chinese business seeking to establish headquar-ters in Europe, along with other compa-nies wanting to set up in the capital.

The likes of government minister Eric Pickles were at the signing last week along with Newham Mayor Sir Robin Wales as London Mayor Boris Johnson and ABP chairman Xu Weip-ing signed on the dotted line and ex-changed gifts.

Situated directly opposite London City Airport, the business park is ex-pected to act as a platform for financial, high-tech and knowledge-driven indus-tries.

The deal represents one of the first direct investments by a Chinese devel-

oper in London’s property market.It is expected to deliver 20,000 full-

time jobs and boost local employment in Newham by 30 per cent.

CatalystIt is believed to be worth £6bn to the

UK economy, generating £23m in busi-ness rates annually and acting as a catalyst for further development in the area.

The area will become home to more than 3.2 million square feet of work, retail and leisure space —with the first occupiers due in 2017.

by Else Kvistelse.kvist@archant.co.uk

The deal is signed

Royal Docks timeline

The Royal Docks comprise three docks - Royal Albert, Royal Victoria and King George V, which were completed between 1855 and 1921.

Royal Victoria, which opened in 1855, was the first dock built specifically for steam ships and the first to be planned with direct rail links onto the quay.

Royal Albert opened in 1880 and was equipped with hydraulic cranes and steam winches to handle vessels up to 12,000 tonnes.

King George V Dock was completed in 1921.The General Strike of 1926 hit the Royal Docks hard with 750,000 frozen carcasses threatened by the docks’ electrical supply being cut off.

During the Second World War the docks suffered severe bomb damage from the German Luftwaffe.

Despite the docks recovering from war damage, they suffered a steady decline from the 1960s onwards following the adoption of containerisation and were closed to commercial traffic in 1981.

The docks’ closure led to high levels of unemployment and social deprivation in the surrounding communities of North Woolwich and Silvertown.

The docks are now closed for commercial shipping and their principal use today is water sports, but naval and merchant vessels visit occasionally.

The Royal Docks Vision and Strategy in 2010 aimed at developing the area as a world-class business destination and building on opportunities presented by the Olympics.

The Victoria and Albert docks were constructed to provide berths for large vessels that could not be accommodated further upriver, specialising in the import and unloading of foodstuffs.

As refrigeration methods improved, the docks started handling frozen meat, fruit and vegetables. Passenger cargoes also became big business —King George V Dock could berth some of the world’s biggest liners.

The three docks collectively formed the largest enclosed docks in the world with a water area of nearly 250 acres (1km2) and an overall estate of 1,100 acres (4.5km2) —equivalent to the whole of central London from Hyde Park to Tower Bridge.

Today, the Royal Docks comprise 122 hectares of prime waterfront land.

It’s a fact

Other major redevelopment projects in the Royal Docks

Transport:

London City Airport opened in 1988.

An extension of the Docklands Light Railway opened in 1994 providing direct links to the City and Canary Wharf.

A DLR link to London City Airport opened in December 2006 and the line was later extended to Woolwich.

The UK’s first urban cable car, Emirates Air Line, opened last year.Housing:

Eastern Quay Apartments,

built at a cost of £10.75m, was completed in 2003 by Morrisons. It sits next to the site once earmarked for Silvertown Quays – a defunct regeneration project intended to include Britain’s first purpose-built national aquarium and the failed London Pleasure Gardens.

Capital East — a luxury development of waterfront apartments and penthouses.

Other developments:

Gallions Reach Shopping Park —a 60-acre open-plan

site with more than 40 major stores and restaurants.

The University of East London Docklands Campus opened in 1999.

ExCeL exhibition centre opened in 2000.

Siemens Crystal Centre, the world’s first dedicated to improving knowledge of urban sustainability, opened last year.

Plans to create the UK’s largest floating village featuring homes, hotels, offices, shops, bars and restaurants on a site under the Emirates Air Line were unveiled earlier this year.

News

Comments on the £1bn deal

Wednesday June 5, 2013 17

‘mini Hong Kong’ in Newham

Copyright Jason Hawkes

London Mayor Boris Johnson said: “For centuries the waterways of east London were the throbbing arteries of UK trade and commerce. This deal symbolises the revival of that great era, continuing the re-invention of this once-maligned part of the capital into a 21st century centre of trade and investment.”

Mayor of Newham Sir Robin Wales said: “The Royal Docks Enterprise Zone offers an unrivalled investment opportunity and this deal further strengthens Newham’s growing reputation

as an ideal destination for international business.”

Chairman of ABP, Xu Weiping, said: “My vision is to develop a world-class international business district which will initially target Asian businesses to help them secure a destination in London, which in China is seen as the gateway to both the United Kingdom and the wider European economy. Our plans aim to strengthen trade between east and west, provide new local jobs and deliver benefits for the wider London and UK economy.”

Chief executive of London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Colin Stanbridge, welcomed the deal and said: “One of the main attractions of the Royal Docks as an area for investment is its proximity to transport connections such as London City Airport and Crossrail, once it is opened. Continued investment in east London’s transport infrastructure must therefore be seen as a necessity if this part of the city is going to continue to attract these deals in future and that investment should begin with a new bridge at Gallions Reach.”

Boris Johnson Sir Robin Wales Xu Weiping Colin Stanbridge

Chinese links to East London go back to Victorian times.

Limehouse was known as London’s first Chinatown but, after the area was destroyed by Second World War bomb-ing, many Chinese relocated to the present-day Chinatown around Soho.

In the 1880s Chinese men, exploited by the crews of merchantmen in the opi-um and tea trades, began to settle after being paid off and finding themselves stranded with no return passage.

Chinese restaurants and grocery stores sprung up, along with laundry houses where lime was used to clean clothes. In many places opium was smoked, giving rise to the invented no-tion of Limehouse as a den where the Chinese hung out to prey on unsuspect-ing passers-by.

There were no Chinese women in the early days and many Chinese men mar-ried English women and a mixed race generation grew up.

It’s not the first time Chinese have settled in the East End

While this is its first project in Europe, ABP is an experienced developer in China.

The company recently completed a 15 million square feet development in Beijing, which is home to 50,000 employees. It consists of 400 large office buildings, many more than 15 storeys, and includes apartments, shops, restaurants, leisure facilities and a hotel.

In Shenyang, the largest city in north-eastern China, ABP has an even larger project under way with more than 400 buildings. The development will be 75 million square feet when complete

— five times the size of the development in Beijing.

The latest ABP project is in in the Eastern coastal city of Quingdao, where the company is said to be on track to complete the first 100 of 300 office buildings next year.

ABP London will work with UK developer Stanhope and architect Farrells to develop a minimum of 600,000 square feet in the first phase. The first occupiers are due to move in in 2017.

Some of China’s top banks are said to have shown an interest already.

Company profile

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