Creative industry parks were launched with much fanfare in recent years and popped up everywhere in old factories. But the economic downturn has impacted most of them.

Shanghai may not be the most fashionable - Paris and Milan lead; Shanghai perhaps isn't the best gourmet choice - there are renowned Cantonese and Sichuan cuisines.

But our fair city is up near the top when it comes to creative industry parks, according to a recent report from the Shanghai Creative Industry Center.

There are 75 creative parks authorized by the Shanghai Economic Committee, with another 200 awaiting approval, according to He Zengqiang, secretary-general of Shanghai Creative Industry Center.

But faced by the global economic downturn, these parks are reassessing the outlook, redefining their target audience, repositioning and reinventing themselves.

Occupancy has fallen in the past year - some art studios and galleries close, fewer events are held in the spaces once intended for brand launches.

Higher-end rents are going down, others are holding steady. They're definitely not going up. Super-artsy doesn't make much money.

Whether all or even most of the 200 creative industry parks will open is an open question.

Among all these parks, centers and hubs, around two-thirds are renovated factories and warehouses.

The rough or deco ambience is sought after by companies featuring fashion, media, technology, arts, design and entertainment outlets. They like being considered "creative."

Are they creative enough?

How are they faring in the economic downturn?

A new creative center in an old TV factory, SVA Yuejie, opened at the beginning of this year in Xuhui District.

Yuejie means "beyond boundaries." The old Shanghai Jinxing (Golden Star) Television Factory site is on Tianlin Road, near the Caohejing area.

While some factory-turned-creative-parks' management worry about occupancy, rent and customer flow, this one doesn't, says Carl Tsui, vice general manager of SVA Creativity Corp Management Co. Unlike many other hubs, it's not super-artsy and its target customer is different.

In just a couple of months, Yuejie has attracted offices, a gym, a cinema, restaurants, cafes and other facilities, Tsui says. Unlike other creative centers that focus on art and design studios and galleries, SVA Yuejie's main space is office. The park covers 100,000 square meters; 70 percent is office space.

Besides targeting a different client, it offers relatively lower rental and a natural environment that includes 30-year-old trees in large green space. Many former factories don't have much green space.

Office space there currently goes for 2.5 yuan (30-60 US cents) per square meter per day. Comparable office space near Xujiahui area is around 10 yuan per square meter per day.

The factory renovation trend really took off in 2004 when the decorators moved in.

At the end of the 19th century, Shanghai's industrial and urban structures were being transformed. Many factories shifted from downtown to rural and suburban areas and old plants were left vacant.

In 1995, the Shanghai Economic Committee began reconstruction of industrial buildings and set out policies for creative industry spaces.

One of the first and most famous is the art hub M50 (50 Moganshan Road) along the Suzhou Creek.

Rent was cheap in the old Shanghai Chun Ming Textile Factory and many artists opened studios in the 1990s.

When it became an official creative industry park in 2002, more than 100 galleries and studios were operating and still are. It attracted artists - and tourists - from all over the world.

Now the hungry artists have moved out, the richer folks and tourists have taken over.

In 2005, 18 creative parks opened in Shanghai.