February 3, 2004
By Philippa Garson
JOBURG is set to become a vibrant 24-hour city once the proposed Central Place development in Newtown gets off the ground.
Central Place, a large square of buildings and building space abutted by Mary Fitzgerald Square on the north, the Turbine Hall and Horror Café on the east side and the Bus Factory Craft and Design Centre on the south, is set for an innovative revamp that will transform it into a shopping, entertainment, office and residential complex.
The Central Place initiative follows on from a host of other developments from Blue IQ and the Johannesburg Development Agency's project to transform Newtown Cultural Precinct into an attractive and accessible place - both for tourists and for those who live and work in the area. Ultimately, the vision is for "Newtown (to) become the creative capital of Johannesburg and South Africa: dynamic, vibrant, sophisticated and cosmopolitan, boasting the best cultural offerings in Africa," reads a brochure on Central Place, which is set to be a cornerstone of this development.
"We're looking at the idea of an integrated, mixed-use area that allows Joburg to become a 24-hour city," says Nicole McLachlan, marketing consultant for the promotion of land in Central Place. The plan is to develop "sandwich buildings" - with shops and restaurants on ground level opening on to a central green space, offices on the second floor and loft apartments on the top floor. In this way, the spaces will be used around the clock: shops, restaurants and entertainment venues from 7am to 11pm or later, offices from 7am to 5pm and apartments from 5pm to 7am.
"We want to create a community where people are able to live, work and be entertained," says McLachlan. "We're not prescriptive about the development of sandwich buildings but this is happening successfully overseas," she adds. However, if a developer has a viable plan without a residential component this may be considered. The main components, she says, are sustainability and empowerment. These are more important than the price offered by the developer.
"Culturally-led regeneration initiatives have worked really well the world over. Those developments that provide not just business or entertainment but a whole lifestyle have been shown to be the most sustainable," adds McLachlan.
There are six sites for development in Central Place, with the area opposite the Market Theatre constituting a seventh site. Already, the Central Place area - 24 200 square metres of land with 56 000 square metres of potential building space - houses several buildings. Some of these, such as the Workers Library Museum, are heritage sites that must be preserved in some way by the developers.
Establishments already in the area include the Newtown Music Centre and the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre, a large science edutainment centre set to open this year. Other tenants include Blue IQ, small film and media companies, the City of Johannesburg Heritage Services and Moving into Dance.
Central Place is also set to have a super-basement consisting of two basements of secure parking under the entire block.
Although crime has been a deterrent to developers in the past, recent surveys show a drastic reduction in crime in the inner city in recent years. Better buildings programmes, clean-up initiatives, lighting, 24-hour security guards and closed-circuit television security cameras have all contributed to a substantial drop in crime. Whereas an average of 30 muggings a month in the inner city were reported in 1994, that figure is now around one or two, points out McLachlan.
The proximity of Central Place to cultural activity is what makes the area unique: on its doorstep are major entertainment venues, including the Horror Café, Market Theatre, Kippies and MuseuMAfrika. The site is also centrally positioned for quick access to other day or nighttime entertainment venues or retail centres around the city.
According to Newtown's website, "the new Carr Street interchange with the M1 Motorway provides easy access to and from the highway, and the Nelson Mandela Bridge is the new gateway to the Johannesburg CBD in the north."
"Public transport is easily accessible at the Metro Mall complex situated 500m away on the corner of West and Bree streets, the main bus terminal is under 1km away on Ghandi Square, and vehicular access from the north, south east and west, is directly via main arterials and highways."
A total of 29 proposals from prospective developers have so far been received for Central Place and the seventh site, and the closing date for more entries is 1 March. The proposals will be adjudicated, whittled down to a shortlist and then submitted to a tender review committee. The successful developer then has 18 months to draw up plans and a further nine months to two years to develop the area.
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