You have to admire their chutzpah. Westfield, the Australian shopping centre developers, will open Europe's biggest inner-city mall in a little more than a fortnight in West London.

After a tumultuous month in the financial markets and amid a tide of economic bad news, the architects of this 1.6 million sq ft temple to mammon cannot be getting much sleep.

Michael Gutman, managing director UK & Europe, is phlegmatic: “We look at market fundamentals and these decisions are taken for the long term. Obviously, the immediate environment is very concerning, but we think that, by building the very best centre we can, it is more likely to bounce back strongly when the market recovers.

“Even through the past few months, the London retail market has shown how resilient it is, relative to the rest of the country.”

The 8,500 construction workers, conspicuous in their high-visibility vests, who pour each day into the White City development, with its 16-metre wide malls and eight-metre high shop fronts, are finishing a facility aimed at middle-class, even rich, shoppers. To attract customers from the hedge fund management catchment area of Notting Hill, Holland Park and Chelsea, Westfield has built a dedicated luxury area, bringing Bond Street retailers into a shopping centre for the first time. Louis Vuitton, Prada and Gucci are among 40 high-end retailers represented in the softly lit space, which is easily reached by escalator from the valet parking area.

Even the non-luxury areas have an upmarket feel. The familiar food court has been replaced by a theatrical dining area. McDonald's and Pizza Hut are absent and polystyrene cartons, paper plates and cups have been banned in favour of real crockery.

Has Mr Gutman pitched the centre too far upmarket? He thinks not: “There's something here for everyone. Luxury brands take up just 5 per cent of the area. We're very conscious that we have a very different catchment area to the west of the centre and all the high street brands are here.” Indeed, Marks & Spencer, the original anchor tenant, has been joined by Debenhams, Next, House of Fraser and Waitrose, each of which will anchor a corner of the centre.

Mr Gutman said that he had been encouraged by the high levels of footfall at other shopping centre openings, including Hammerson and Land Securities' Cabot Circus in Bristol, which opened last month. Furthermore, in the weeks before opening, despite the constant stream of bad financial news, more tenants have signed up. When Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, opens the centre on October 30, it will be “virtually full”, up from 96 per cent leased in August, with more than 265 retailers and 50 eateries.

Westfield Group expects an initial yield of 5.25 to 5.5 per cent on the project, but will not name a value for the asset, which has cost £1.7 billion to develop, until it updates the Australian stock market in November. Westfield London — the company gives its name to what will become its flagship centre in the UK — is 50 per cent owned by Westfield Group, which is based in Sydney, and 50 per cent owned by Commerz Real, the real estate investment unit of Commerzbank, the Frankfurt-based bank.

In an ideal world, the group would probably sell at least 25 per cent of its stake after completion. However, at present the investment property market is almost as frozen as the residential one and an imminent divestment seems unlikely. “We always intended to be long-term co-owners of the centre,” Mr Gutman said.

Westfield's infatuation with London shopping is not over. Even before the White City development has finished, it has started work on a bigger shopping centre in East London. Stratford is due to open in 2011 — hopefully, just as the world is about to emerge into the next upturn of the cycle.

White City

Site: 43 acres, the area of Buckingham Palace and its gardens
Floor space: 1.6 million sq ft
Retailers: 265
Restaurants: 50
Visitors: 60,000 a day expected
Staff: 7,000
Cost of development: £1.7 million
Escalators: 96
Construction numbers: 25,000 tonnes of steel, 585,000 tonnes of concrete, 55,000 marble floor tiles

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