It may not look terribly impressive, but a humble lift shaft starting to take shape on a former flood plain in East London offers concrete proof that the area around the site of the London Olympic Games in 2012 is an economic sanctuary from the problems facing the rest of the country.

Protruding from a previously derelict site, the partially built tower is part of what will be the largest John Lewis store outside Oxford Street, part, too, of the largest regeneration project in London. Britons may be tightening their belts in 2008, but with the prospect of millions of feet marching towards Stratford four years from now John Lewis is preparing to open a 240,000 sq ft department store and a 32,000sq ft Waitrose supermarket in a £1.5 billion shopping centre built by Westfield, the Australian construction group.

The other anchor tenant in the 180-acre retail and leisure development, which will be the largest shopping centre in Greater London when it opens in 2011, is Marks & Spencer. During the Games, more than 500,000 people a day will pass by the companies' enlarged shop windows on their way to watch the Olympics. It is hard to imagine better advertising.

Or, ultimately, a better-connected location. The site will be linked with two underground lines, the Docklands Light Railway, regional overland services, the international high-speed rail link to Paris from 2010, a seven-minute Olympic shuttle to St Pancras by 2012 and, ultimately, a 30-minute connection to Heathrow via Crossrail. In legacy terms, signing an agreement this month with Westfield over the provision of infrastructure, utilities and services to the Olympic Park was a coup for the Government. It was important enough to bring Frank Lowy, co-founder of the Sydney-listed company, to Downing Street to announce the deal with Gordon Brown.

Yet Westfield is not looking merely at the Games, but beyond them. Michael Gutman, its managing director for Europe, claims that the shopping centre would work with or without London 2012.

“The company has seen many difficult economic periods over 50 years,” Mr Gutman said. “We are looking to the long term. Whatever comes from the Olympics is a plus, but we believe in the fundamental underlying demand.”

Thus the project in Stratford is part of a £10 billion UK development programme by Westfield, the world's largest retail property developer, which started with the opening last year of a £340 million shopping centre in Derby and will follow in October with the £1.6 billion White City project in West London.

Nonetheless, Martin Allen, a property analyst for Morgan Stanley, believes that the Olympic timetable has helped. “They're seizing the opportunity,” he said. “Big shopping centres can normally take 15 years to develop, but the Olympics creates an artificial deadline, which means they can get planning permissions quicker.

“Obviously, it's not the best time now, but you would have to be very pessimistic not to think that the economy would have bottomed out by 2011.”

Westfield believes that Westfield Stratford will create 18,000 jobs after 25,000 contractors have been through the building site, overcoming 100 years of neglect in the area. All this, too, in the face of an economic downturn.

Eastern promise

160,000 Number of homes to be built in the Thames Gateway region by 2016

£17bn The amount to be invested in public transport for the Lower Lea Valley by 2012

500,000 Number of visitors a day to Stratford during the Games

Source: Times research

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