JLW has defined Shanghai's Downtown district as extending westwards from the Bund to Chengdu Road, incorporating all of Huangpu district, in addition to the eastern portion of Luwan district.
It is bounded to the north and south by Beijing and Fuxing roads respectively, and includes the Bund precinct and eastern Huaihai Road precinct.
Within so-called Downtown, JLW says there is 6.81 million square feet of proposed Grade A office space to be built by the end of 1998, representing 46 per cent of Puxi supply and 17 per cent of supply in the city.
The Bund - including 110 historic buildings lining the western bank of the Huangpu River - was known as the 'Wall Street' of Shanghai prior to 1949, with financial institutions occupying the majority of buildings.
The older buildings are generally in urgent need of refurbishment and are under heritage protection, meaning they cannot be redeveloped.
As such, the availability of vacant sites for redevelopment in the area is limited.
To circumvent this, the Shanghai authorities have identified 37 historic buildings, which will be made available to foreign organisations for refurbishment and occupation.