London is a city with a long legacy in trade and commerce, but since the days of “Cool Britannia” in the mid-nineties, it’s better known for its edginess and constant change.
Twelve kilometres due east from Central London is Stratford, where there is rapid change underway in what can be best called a “crane city”. Earth movers are making way for museums and brick-by-brick new housing is going up.
This is the London Legacy project, home to the 2012 Summer Games, and the site of a huge regeneration effort. So in the spirit of the Olympic Games in Rio, I made my way to East London to see if the country can deliver on its promise when it put forth the bid to create a new destination in a city starving for affordable housing and office space.
The chief executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation, David Goldstone, took me on regeneration tour of the works underway. He believes London can break the curse that left host cities saddled with billions of dollars of debt.
“I think what we are showing is that the Olympics can be a great investment. It is not just a cost, not just a burden on a host city it and can be an investment that can provide great returns to the city and the host nation,” Goldstone said overlooking Olympic Park.
He has an expansive canvas to work with, some 560 acres — or 2.2 million square meters — of wide-open space that is filling up fast. On the eastern flank of the site, there are skyscrapers sprouting to compete with nearby Canary Wharf, a well-known financial district which struggled with debt in its early years.
“The really important thing here is that it is creating a new business quarter and it will bring about 25,000 jobs in the next 7-8 years,” said Goldstone. Two sizeable government entities have already committed to being anchor tenants — Transport for London and the Financial Conduct Authority — meaning that one quarter of the four million square feet on offer is accounted for.
To lure in corporate leaders and residents, London Legacy is bringing in global brands from other parts of London to set up shop, including a second Victoria & Albert Museum and Sadler Wells theatre.
For sporty types, the aquatic centre designed by the late Zaha Hadid is in full use and so too is the cycling velopark, which became famous during the games due to Team GB’s success on the home track.
Transport connectivity is a crucial part of the overall pitch to business and by 2018 there will be more than 200 trains an hour running to the area. A journey from Oxford Circus to Stratford officials should take less than half-hour point-to-point.
And to play in the big leagues, London Legacy spent a head-turning $300 million to spruce up their 50,000 seat stadium for the West Ham Football team. Goldstone. who has had to answer to critics, said the investment will pay back dividends over time. “Premier League football brings in the crowds, brings in TV revenue, helps make the stadium viable long term and that makes it a really important part of the legacy of the area and helps make it an important part of a place to live, work and visit,” he said.
Even before the Olympic Park was built, the surrounding area became a magnet for residential investment. Prices rose over 70 per cent over the past decade and some are raising concerns about leaving a legacy of unaffordable housing in this district.
At a complex called Cobham Manor, one-bedroom flats are on the market for well over half a million dollars. The constant complaint in London is that teachers, social workers and even doctors cannot afford to live in their city anymore.
Nick Bowers-Broadbent, a primary schoolteacher, bought a home in a nearby council estate before the property boom and was sceptical that pricing can be contained as he looked from the spacious park area to the new housing development.
“Lovely — it would be brilliant to live here, but I don’t know what that costs and I don’t know whether as a teacher in the first year you could afford to live somewhere like that,” he said.
Then there’s the gritty art scene that is getting pushed out. Ema Marinova moved her gallery from Hackney Wick, in the shadow of the Olympic Park to nearby Dalston. She continues to bring in graffiti artists before the area is completely transformed.
Marinova said there is clearly a trade-off, between attracting development and pricing out a community of artists.
“It opens up a big door but it does have that minus — rent goes higher, artists leave looking for a cheaper space — but you have an opportunity for business and development,” said the 23-year old entrepreneur.
The writer is Emerging Markets Editor at CNNMoney.
