Swire to turn Zhangyuan’s shikumen cluster into Shanghai’s Covent Garden or Omotesando in massive urban revival project
- Swire Properties owns 60 per cent of a venture with Shanghai Jing’an Real Estate Group, which is developing Zhangyuan
- The first phase of Zhangyuan will open in July 2022, comprising 20,000 square metres of retail shops, restaurants, co-working space and art installations
“This is a one-of-a-kind project for us as there are so many interesting stories in the 100-year history of Zhangyuan,” said Swire Properties’ retail director Han Zhi, in an interview with the South China Morning Post. “We hope to [transform it] into a superior community like London’s Covent Garden, or Tokyo’s Omotesando, where urban millennials can live a high-end and beautiful life.”
Swire’s project aims to bring the 21st century to an area dubbed Shanghai’s “best garden.” The original site, lying south of Nanjing Road West in Shanghai’s old French Concession, was sold in 1882 by the British merchant Francis Groom to Zhang Shuhe, a wealthy grains shipper from the Jiangsu provincial city of Wuxi.
Zhang built a Western-style garden with ponds, and filled it with exotic flowers, willows and bamboo groves, for his mother to live in. When his mother died in 1885, Zhang opened his garden to the public, turning it into a playground for city residents. The Arcadia Hall in the garden was Shanghai’s tallest building of the time.
