February 25, 2005
By Anish Abraham
THE area around Sandton Drive and Alice Lane is a beehive of activity with construction workers busy modifying the intersection, creating a new access road to 1 Sandton Drive, the new location of the US Embassy.
This is just one of the developments taking place in Sandton Central - as the business district is now known.
Sandton Central is a management district set up by local businesses to improve the area, support the work of the City of Johannesburg, and encourage investment.
Set up in 2002, Sandton Central aims to turn the area into one of Johannesburg's main financial, commercial and entertainment hubs.
Goals for 2005 include the establishment of a Disaster Management Forum, an increased focus on green spaces, and improved management of informal traders - including designing stalls.
Sandton Central also plans to increase landscaping projects within the district, focus on clear signs helping demarcation and way-finding, and continued Public Safety Ambassador training.
Sandton Central is also planning to boost weekend activities in the area. The first phase of the plan will see the launch of the Village Walk Shopping Centre weekly Sunday market on 13 March.
According to Cara Reilly, brand manager, vendors at the market will offer exclusive and handmade goods, fresh produce, African art works, crafts, esoteric fare and organic products.
Some of the challenges facing Sandton Central in the upcoming year, says Reilly, include "ensuring the goals of the improvement district and those of the City of Johannesburg are in line with each other and ensuring members focus on Sandton Central as a whole and not only on their own agendas".
As part of building closer relationships with various partners, Sandton Central plans to take an active role in the establishment of the Sandton Station planned as part of the Gautrain development linking Johannesburg and Pretoria with the Johannesburg International Airport.
In 2004 Sandton Central established the brand and ensured its visibility around the district, created an urban art programme, which led to the Maude Street mural, renovated an obsolete fountain on the corner of West Street and Rivonia Road, and set up a website at www.sandtoncentral.co.za.
The Public Safety Ambassador training programmes were also implemented - putting visible security guards on the street on bicycles. According to Reilly there had been a drop in 10 of 12 crime categories in the last six months of 2004.
Public Safety Ambassadors, she says, assisted on average 200 people a month.
The urban management team also arranged for cleaning crews to pick up a total of 145 000kg of refuse over the year.
Continuing to grow in influence, Sandton Central's management team will be moving to new offices in the RMB Properties building at 3 Gwen Lane on
Tuesday, 1 March.
For more information contact Sandton Central on 011 784 8400.
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