What you get for 100,000 yuan a day on the Bund
A Taiwanese investor has rented three floors of one of the most prestigious edifices along Shanghai's legendary Bund for the breathtaking figure of 100,000 yuan per day.
One floor already houses an upscale Cantonese restaurant. A French restaurant and a music club will open on the remaining two floors before the end of the year.
A look at the upscale eatery's bill of fare will also take your breath away, if not your appetite. The Supreme Whale Shark's Fin set menu is a cool 1,280 yuan per person. Other set menus are in the 350- to 1,180-yuan per-person range.
In addition to a la carte items are sushi and sake bars.
'With this kind of rent, it must be really top class,' says Jessie Liu, manager of the Tan Wai Lou Restaurant. 'Otherwise you wouldn't make it.'
Bund 18, at 18 Zhongshan First Road East, will house four floors of high-end fashion boutiques and three floors of food and beverage outlets. Built in 1923, the building originally housed the Standard Chartered Bank.
The Tan Wai Lou Chinese Restaurant, on the fifth floor, is the first outlet to throw open its doors. Days after its October 23 opening, it was packed with tour groups from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The restaurant serves an essentially Cantonese menu, with Northern Chinese as well as Japanese and European touches. It was developed by Hong Kong-born head chef To Chi-ho, formerly chief executive chef at the Hong Kong Shangri-La.
'There are some Western dishes made Chinese style,' Ms Liu explains. 'This style of cooking is popular in Shanghai. Traditional Shanghainese food is very oily. This kind of cooking is thought to be healthier.'
Cantonese was chosen after a market study revealed that Cantonese cuisine was second only to Shanghainese in popularity among the city's diners. But at prices like these, it is anyone's guess just how many locals will be eating in the elegant deep red, black, and white dining room.
'We expect 80 per cent of our customers to be from out of town,' Ms Liu say. 'We are targeting people from Taiwan, Hong Kong and overseas. Our prices are too expensive for locals.'
Italian interior designer, Filippo Gabbiani, with offices in Copenhagen, Hong Kong, and Venice, came up with the contemporary Chinese-inspired design.
The Sens and Bund French Restaurant will open on the sixth floor at the end of the year. The Bar Rouge music lounge will occupy the seventh, or top floor.
Luxury boutiques will occupy the first four floors. Commercial offices and art galleries will round out the complex. Visual Orient Company (Shanghai) (VOL) has been granted the right to run the building.
Bund 18 is the second waterfront building to get a facelift in recent months. The first, Three on the Bund, opened several months earlier and houses upscale boutiques, a gallery, a spa, and several designer food and beverage outlets. It is already turning an operational profit and will have recovered a return on investment within seven to 10 years.
Word has it that within five to six years the entire stretch will be transformed. There has been talk of renovating the Peace Hotel under new management, and investors have shown interest in turning neighbouring buildings into boutique hotels, entertainment centres and venues similar to Bund 18.
In addition to the high cost of renting or buying land on the Bund, renovating old buildings is far more costly than starting from scratch.
So why are investors practically lining up to get a piece of the action? There is the prestige factor of being located in a heritage building on easily recognisable real estate. Then there are those magnificent views of the harbour and the surrealistic landscape of Pudong beyond.
Ms Liu walks to one of the 1920s era windows and points proudly outside. 'Look at that view!' she commands. 'Where else can you find a view like that?'
