Construction has begun on the West Bund Financial Hub in Xuhui District, which will become afinancial center to rival theBund and Lujiazui.

Consisting of 28 plots, the project on the Huangpu River waterfront has a total floor area of around 1.8 million square meters, including office buildings, malls, hotels, exhibition halls, communities and cultural and sports facilities .

The “next generation, financial hub,” which has some 1.2 kilometers of Huangpu riverbank, will blend five major themes of culture, energy, fashion, finance and technology, according to Hong Kong Land, the project’s developer.

The renowned KPF architectural institute, which designed the Hudson Yards in New York, will take charge of the main planning and design.

The new financial hub will become the third round of development along the Huangpu River after the Bund and Lujiazui financial hubs in Pudong, the district government said.

As a highlight project, the former site of the Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo Railway within the hub will be developed into a cross-river cable car station.

More than 40 clients in the financial and innovation sectors have negotiated with the developer to move into the future financial hub.

Among them, 15 have signed memorandums of understanding.

Xuhui is developing an ambitious plan to make the West Bund a leisure area,fenceless museum, financial center and an innovation incubator.