April 29th, 2007
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Europe by
Christopher DeWolf
The Spitalfields Market, just east of the City of London on Commercial Street, has existed in one form or another since 1638. The existing market hall was built in 1887 but a new extension, airily contemporary in contrast to the brick-and-iron heaviness of the old hall, recently opened. Apparently, the annex replaces part of an outdoor trading area, the rest of which has been given over to a complex of Norman Foster-designed office buildings. It also reduced the market’s overall number of trading stalls in favour of new permanent retail spaces that appear to have been leased largely to chain eateries.
Already, the Spitalfields Market serves a diminished role—its wholesale fruit and vegetable business moved to a new East London market in 1991—and the twin forces of gentrification and development pressure could conceivably turn it into something akin to Boston’s Quincy Market, which is to say a pale imitation of an actual public market. Still, the Spitalfields Market remains just that. For the time being, at least, it is a hive of daily activity as nearby residents shop for groceries, office workers line up for cheap lunches and tourists and gawkers like me stand back, watching it all.
November 15th, 2006
Seoul’s Myeong-dong district is the ninth most exclusive shopping district in the world, according to an annual study of shopping streets published by the real estate analysis company Cushman & Wakefield. Retail space in the bustling shopping area in central Seoul costs about US $376 per square foot, or €3,169 per square metre. The study finds that Myeong-dong is the fourth most expensive shopping district in Asia, after Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay, Ginza in Tokyo, and Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall.
Rents in Myeong-dong have risen 3.4% between June 2005 and June 2006, which is a continuation of a trend that has seen rents in the area rise steadily for some years. “Demand for prime retail space (in Seoul) is currently exceeding supply”, according to Richard Hwang of Cushman & Wakefield Korea. Mr. Hwang goes on to say that there is significant demand for a Myeong-dong address amongst local food and beverage businesses, international fashion brands looking to set up their flagship Korean stores, and large department store chains wanting to increase their presence in the Korean capital.
Not everyone has been able to manage the rise in real estate costs in Myeong-dong. ‘Unacceptable rent hikes’ forced coffee giant Starbucks to retreat from the neighbourhood in May of 2005 when the company closed what was Asia’s largest coffee shop and relocated to a less expensive part of the downtown core. The four story Starbucks has since been replaced by an outlet of the Italy based Caffe Pascucci.
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