London, England: In the Excited States, The View means the notorious chick chat show that’s often a target for late night comedians.
In Vancouver, the view means higher real estate values.
Here, The View means the best place to get a bird’s eye peek at the Olympic Park, the 2.5-square-kilometre campus in Stratford where workers are busy completing the 2012 Summer Games’ Olympic Stadium, Olympic Village, main media centre and aquatic centre.
London’s Eastside has something that Vancouver really didn’t have: a true destination-marketing centre to promote the planned legacies and encourage investment. The Tower Hamlets borough of London, which governs the Eastside and includes Toronto-based Olympia and York’s Canary Wharfs, is trying to capitalize on the 2012 Games in its backyard.
Sure, the British Columbia Commerce Centre served some of that purpose, but it was subterranean at Robson Square. The View has the advantage of offering the best panoramic vista of where the world will be focused July 27-August. 12, 2012.
Naturally curious business, media and national Olympic Committee groups have visited The View to capture images of the iconic venues and hear about the regeneration of an area that features a mix of low-income housing, warehouses and light industrial businesses.
The View is on the top two floors of a 16-storey social housing tower, where residents are offered a chance to rent-to-own their flats among an 1897-built chocolate factory renovated for artist lofts.
It’s just one part of the massive regeneration project in an area that even boasts a salmon-shaped, fish-smoking factory called Forman’s Fish Island. It holds 600 for receptions and is the nearest hospitality venue to the Olympic Stadium.
After it’s done its job as a preview centre, The View is set to become a prime Games-time location for broadcasters. Talks have happened with ESPN and CNN, which are seeking spots because they’re not rights-holders and can’t have studios in the international broadcast centre.
The Eastside is roughly defined as everything east of the famed Tower of London and boasts 6,500 hotel beds and the London City Airport. The runway on a giant pier serves 32 European destinations, New York and soon Boston and Washington, D.C.
Canary Wharfs, the Reichmann brothers-led office and retail development, draws some 100,000 office workers daily and has quietly pulled London’s centre eastward. It’s just a couple of stops south of the Olympic Park via the Docklands Light Railway and is home to marquee tenants like Reuters, Citibank and HSBC. While Victoria Park will be converted to a live site, Canary Wharfs is hoping to lure some national Olympic committees and sponsors to set up their own hospitality centres and exhibits among the cluster of towers, which includes the centrepiece 50-storey One Canada Square, England’s tallest tower.
Uncertainty remains, however, in the short and long term. Eastsiders worry that the London 2012 Organizing Committee won’t route the marathon through their area for a traditional finish at the Olympic Stadium. Broadcasters would rather see runners pass by London’s iconic sights, further west.
The Olympic Stadium’s post-Games tenant could be West Ham United FC, while the tenants at the Olympic Village are more likely to be lower-income earners and families than the deep-pocketed investors targeted for Vancouver’s.
Others are worried that the Olympic Park will inspire a wave of gentrification that could drive rents up.
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