NYT event listing for Children's Museum, Nov 2003

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

hl. WWW A growing commercial business district has developed, at Canary Wharf in London over the last two decade.s, transforming the area from an aban-.. doned dock to a thriving cluster o.f global finaocia.l service institutions. Similar to Lower Manhattan, the weakness, of the transportation infra­ structure was one of the main obstacles to the growth of the commerdal tenant base. The construedon on the Jubilee subway line, which connects Canary Wharf to Central London's West End in 15 minutes, proved to be a turning point in the development of the area.

Much, .like parts of the Lower Manhattan shore, Canary Wharf - a cargo warehouse at the center of the Docklands district up until the mid-1960s. Sea-cargo business at the docks declined precipitously in the early 1970s as new technology and containeri'zation reduced the competitiveness of the London Docklands.

The Imndon Docklands Development Corporation was created in 1981 to revitalize the Docklands area. The central area, rep.re.senting about 10% of the total., was designated an Enterprise Zone, offering tax incentive.s to both investors and developers. The first major corrimercisJ buildings were completed in 1991, but were not immediately successful. One reason for the failure of the cfevdopmeat was the inadequacy of the existing public transportation infrastructure coupled with the down turn in the global economy. Until the construction of the Jubilee Line, Canary Wharfs public transportation system was limited to the Docklands Light .Rail, a newly constructed transit system that had limited connections with other London transit systems. To address the Docklands’ problems, construction of the Jubilee line commenced in 1993.

When, construction began .in 1993, the total employment in Canary Wharf was 7,000 people. By the beg'm- ning of 2000, one year after corn.plet.ion of the Jubilee subway line, the number of jobs had grown, almost 300%) to 27,000 and by January 2003 it totaled 55,000. Key financial and professional service firms relocat­ ed to Canary Wharf, with the pace of new tenants accelerating in the late 1990s.’’’

While the financial market boom of the late 1990s played a key role in. the absorption pfconimefcial space in. Canary Wharf, it is widely acknowledged that the development would not have succeeded at the pace observed without the transportation enhancement provided by the Jubilee line. A total of 9 million square feet of commercial space has been completed since 1991 and another 5,5 million square feet is under con­ struction, of which 95% is pre- leased.

.Key tenants .induefe State Street Bank (1991), Morgan Stanley (1991), Credit Suisse First Boston (1994), Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Ftom (1996), Burlington Resource (1997), Readers Digest (1997), Bank of Montreal (1998), HSBC (1998), Bank of New York (1998), KPMG (2000), ClifFord Chance (2000), McGraw-HiD (2000), Northern Trust Bank (2060), .Lehmaa Brothers X2000), and Barebys (2001).

8 Lower Manhattan Iransportarion

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