Neil Fraser
November 10, 2003
BEFORE continuing with the year-end overview let's have a look at investment in another specific element of the city - the public domain (last week it was parking).
Paying for public space!
Prior to 1986 the private sector appears to have generally restricted their investment in public space to specific works of art, fountains, etc. In 1986, following three years of discussion with Council, the first major investment in public space by the private sector occurred. It was to commemorate the city's centenary and took the form of a pedestrianised and partly roofed Smal Street between Commissioner and Pritchard Streets. The resultant Smal Street Mall still commands premium rentals for its boutique type shopping and has one of the highest pedestrian flows in the city.
Some years were to pass before another major private sector investment took place. In 1999 Gerald Olitzki, a property owner on what was then van der Byl Square, the city's main bus terminal, envisioned a redesigned open and light facility replacing the gloomy 1940s atmosphere created by rows of continuous parallel heavy concrete bus shelters that ran full length of the square - the roof area of which was used by the homeless and petty criminals. At his request the CJP brought together a consortium of the property owners on the Square who contributed towards the cost of redevelopment, then negotiated a grant of R500 000 from Provincial Government and the Square was completely refurbished at an overall cost of R2.5 million.
This was followed shortly thereafter by the pedestrianisation of Fox Street over three city blocks between Kruis and Rissik Streets - also paid for by the private sector.
The Anglo American Corporation obtained permission to close Main Street over two city blocks between Sauer and McClaren Streets creating a beautiful park- like precinct between their various Head Office buildings. Further east, the previously pedestrianised Hollard Street had become quite run down and again it was the private sector that invested in a tasteful upgrade to the area.
As we reported last week, Braamfontein is undergoing a major streetscape upgrading including the creation of a street piazza around the revamped extended Sappi HQ building. Sappi have also borne the cost of the complete redesign and reconstruction of the park directly south of the Civic Theatre.
During 2001/2 Newtown became the focus of major public space and streetscape upgrading by the Council including Mary Fitzgerald Square. This was followed (this year) by a contract extending the streetscape upgrade into the street grid between Mary Fitzgerald Square and the Plaza. This in turn has been recently followed by a further contract upgrading the disused railway sidings in the previously industrial section of Newtown north of Jeppe Street.
During this year initial streetscape work was completed in the Fashion District when various ceramic 'stitching patterns' were introduced into the footways to demarcate the area.
Over the last two years the investment in the public realm has totalled approximately R200 million with R30 million coming from the private sector (this excludes the cost of the Nelson Mandela Bridge and on-and-off ramps and normal council expenditure on roads).
On the cards for 2004 is some exciting work to Main Street, the creation of a 'legal precinct' around the High Court and, possibly, the pedestrianisation of Fox Street from the Carlton Center to the ABSA campus. Anticipated investment over all three projects is R32 million of which R5 million is likely to come from the public sector.
Back to the overall review - and a look at what is and has happened on the western side of the inner city.
Milpark
So, going west and leapfrogging the Wits University Campus to Milpark we find another speciality precinct emerging after years of dereliction. When I wrote about this area some three months ago (Citichat 29/2003) I commented on its superb location - only minutes from the city and equally close to Wits and RAU universities, the Technikon's West Campus, (yeah I know the names of these latter two education institutions have changed but I can't be expected to remember to what at my age!), good schools, a number of private and public hospitals and trendy suburbs such as Melville and, of course, situated on the doorstep of the SABC complex in Auckland Park. Add vision and entrepreneurial spirit and some R50 million of private sector investment and bingo, we have another great asset for the city!
The carefully restored 52 year-old industrial building at 33 Frost Avenue - ex Coca-Cola bottling plant, ex Atlas Bakery - has emerged under the meticulous care of its new owners, husband and wife architectural team Jonathan and Lorien Gimpel, as an already successful film and TV recording complex.
Opposite is a residential development, the Refinery, comprising residential apartments and lofts - total of 7 900 sq metres with a further 5 000 sq metres of residential to be developed at the Film School. All units have been sold. Then there is the Media Mill, a mixture of refurbished and new space housing the Mail and Guardian, Gas Works Publishing and Paragon Architects amongst others. Wrapping around the Media Mill and The Refinery is 44 Stanley Avenue - 4 500 sq metres of refurbished office space together with retail and entertainment including an outdoor cinema, restaurants and bars with clever use made of another 3 500 sq metres of enclosed outdoor space. Looming over all of this is the Gas Works which is at the beginning of a five year re-development phase which will see the conservation of vernacular and historic buildings and conversion into lofts, apartments, student accommodation, offices and niche retail around creative/media industries. And the Spruit will be reinstated.
Excluding the Gas Works, a private sector investment of probably R50 million.
Newtown
Citichat 31/2003 sketched the fascinating history of Newtown summarised here to provide context to the current and planned developments:
- A year after the discovery of gold, a portion of the farm known as Braamfontein, which included the Fordsburg Spruit, was bought by the ZAR government in order to secure a water supply for the rapidly growing mining camp.
- This area, today known as Newtown proved to have an abundance of clay on the banks of the Spruit.
- The clay attracted brickmakers who supplied the bricks for many of the early buildings in the city.
- By 1896 the last brickmakers had made way for extensive goods yards for the railways and the area developed as a mixture of formal and informal accommodation earning the nicknames of 'Poverty Point'; 'The Dark Side of Johannesburg' and 'The Fly in the Johannesburg Honey Pot'.
- The British, who had captured Johannesburg in 1900, decided that the area was too valuable to be a slum and decided to declare it an 'Unsanitary Area' which would enable expropriation, demolition and redevelopment.
- In 1904 the area was fenced off, the inhabitants forcibly removed to a segregation camp at Klipspruit, and the entire area torched. The fire burned for three days.
So it was that land became available for a 'new town' to be built, imaginatively named Newtown by the municipality! A fresh fruit and vegetable market (in 1913 the biggest building in the country, now MuseumAfrica and the Market Theatre), an abattoir, a livestock market, a corn exchange, restaurant, bank, post office, railway office, shops and large sheds to store thousands of bags of potatoes.
A new power station with its electric workshops, turbine hall, cooling towers and worker housing. A shed to house and repair the city's trams - all of these combined to make Newtown a thriving centre of employment. But with the later relocation of market and abattoir, the closing of the power station and relocation of the electricity department, the area's employment capacity dwindled and the area started deteriorating. Remarkably for a city characterised by the rapidity with which it demolishes its historic buildings, Newtown buildings were generally left for other purposes to be found for them.
Following the implosion of the cooling towers in 1985, numerous attempts were made to redevelop the area, the Turbine Hall structure was put out on a proposal call, a number of bids were received - greed on the part of the council of the time led them to accept the highest tender, which never materialised, and Newtown continued to decline.
The Market Theatre became an important icon during the struggle period and the giant market hall was developed into MuseuMAfrica. The potato storage sheds behind the Market Theatre were developed by Benjy Frances into the Afrika Cultural Centre, still doing great work amongst previously disadvantaged children.
The area became something of a political football in the early '90s when the council of the time declared, with much fanfare, that it was to become the city's 'cultural hub' but the original plans were never implemented and the media had a field day of "We told you so!" Only two private sector projects were developed during that time - the building of the Johannesburg branch of the South African Reserve Bank - an introverted monolith which turns its blank face onto the streets and the South African Breweries 'World of Beer' museum built to commemorate the SAB Centenary - and a great museum and asset to the city it is.
The city centre development framework produced by Gapp Architects and Urban Solutions in 2000 (and funded by the Inner City Business Coalition) gave direction and impetus and a new focus for the area.
The 'Vision for Newtown' set the area on a path to become "the creative capital of Johannesburg and South Africa: dynamic, vibrant, sophisticated and cosmopolitan, boasting the best cultural offerings in South Africa." The Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) picked up the ball and the process accelerated.
The first priority was to ensure the provision of good access to the area and the upgrading the public domain. New access connecting Newtown to the north was by way of the Nelson Mandela Bridge, completed earlier this year, whilst new on-and-off ramps were constructed off the motorway to provide the southerly connection. Total cost approximately R110 million.
Roads and footways were reconfigured and rebuilt, new lighting provided and the historic but dusty Mary Fitzgerald Square south of Museum Africa was refashioned into a highly usable public space particularly for large scale concerts and cultural gatherings - total public space upgrades cost R135 million.
The Market Theatre embarked on a revamp that included upgrading the public space to its east. The large Metro Mall project on the eastern boundary between the centre city and Newtown was completed at the end of last year at a cost of R139 million and is a model for such multi-use centres. It provides ranking for 2 520 taxis, has 500 informal trading stalls and 37 formal retail outlets. To be added next year are between 160 and 250 lower and middle-income residential units.
The industrial buildings to the south of Mary Fitzgerald Square were refurbished to house the Newtown Music Centre which provides training in every conceivable aspect of music and the Dance Factory which hosts national and international dance events.
The old industrial sheds that once housed the city's trams were refurbished into the Bus Factory Craft and Design Centre - still hosting 'Beautiful Things' - great craft exhibition. The illegally occupied Transport House was cleared of squatters and is being currently considered for conversion into an indoor event space.
The mining house, Anglo Gold, obtained an option over the Turbine Hall building with an eye to converting it into their corporate head office - if they exercise their option they will have to spend a minimum of R150 million. The Electric Workshop is currently undergoing a R150 million conversion into the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre - a hands-on learning environment where "science will be demystified in a fun and entertaining way."
The area also hosts Astor Cash & Carry, the largest facility in South Africa for cross-border shopping; numerous clubs including Kippies, the Horror Café, Carfax, Nikkis, Bass Line, Ministry of Sound and Politburo, as well as restaurants and pubs, Shivava, Gramadoelas, Moyos, Couch and Coffee. There is a growing presence of specialist retail - CDs, art and crafts, interior design, jewellery, musical instruments, clothing (linked to the Fashion District), museum and gift shops.
MuseuMAfrica, the Bensusan Museum of Photography, Worker's Museum and Library, World of Beer and the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre all add up to provide a formidable attraction to the area.
Interest in residential development increased and three projects have been completed over the past few years - Carr Gardens - 72 units, Tribunal Gardens - 174 units and Cope Housing - 351 units. A further residential development, Brickfields, is currently under construction and will add 647 units in its first phase. As mentioned previously, between 160 and 250 units will be built next year as part of the Metro Mall complex.
Urban Solutions, the architects and urban designers responsible for much of the Newtown public space design (as well as Constitutional Hill and MetroMall), recognised the potential of the area and purchased the Iwisa building which they have lovingly restored and now have its 6 000 sq metres commercial space almost fully let. They have also teamed up with a developer and bought the
5 000 sq metre Mill building opposite for refurbishing into offices (and possibly a theatre) and are investigating turning the mill silos into loft apartments (possible sale price for each of the 9 - 130 sq metre units is R500 000 each.
The streetscaping process was extended from Mary Fitzgerald Square west to the Oriental Plaza and into the street grid to its north. A drive through the area shows the power this type of public investment as literally dozens of buildings are being repainted and refurbished. The Oriental Plaza, recognising the new lease of life the improved access would bring them, invested in upgrading various aspects of their property. A new contract for the upgrading of the old unused railway sidings has recently been let, another boost for the public domain.
Numerous proposals are being examined for the open land that lies just south of the historic Park Station structure and I hear that a R70 million joint venture between the current owner, Propnet and a private developer will in all likelihood result in a new office building and residential buildings being constructed around a public square.
The parcel of land known as Central Place (bounded by Jeppe, Goch, President and Bezuidenhout Streets) will be released shortly by the JDA for development proposals "to create and sustain a mixed use commercial node with retail facilities that enhance the lifestyle of residents and workers and service visitors to the area providing experiential shopping". Part and parcel of this development will be the construction of 3 600 sq metres of office space for the Gauteng Tourism Agency and others and 900 sq metres of retail as well as parking for 500 cars.
I estimate that money invested in this area over the last two years and known committed projects is of the order of R1 billion of which 40% is private sector.
I think that the description of 'ripple pond' coined by Lael Bethlehem, head of the Council's Economic Development Unit, is particularly apt applied as it is to urban renewal. Fordsburg and Chinatown are good examples of the ripple effect. Both areas border on Newtown, Fordsburg to its west and Chinatown to its South. The activity that has been generated in Newtown have made these two neighbouring areas say, "hey, me too!"
Fordsburg
Fordsburg lies directly west of Newtown. It was one of the burgeoning gold mining city's very early residential areas - one record states that miner's cottages were concentrated in suburbs in such areas as Fordsburg. Decades later it became the area where the Nationalist Government created the Oriental Plaza as a segregated shopping centre for Indian traders who were forcibly 'decanted' from neighbouring Pageview. (Citichats 11 -13/2003).
As previously observed, the Oriental Plaza is enjoying all the benefits of improved access into Newtown - my wife and I were there about six weeks ago on a Saturday morning and parking was impossible. The area has also greatly benefited from the streetscape upgrading of Jeppe, Bree and adjoining streets and much signs of renewed interest in the area are evident.
The section of Bree Street between Mary Fitzgerald Square and the Oriental Plaza contains many fine buildings and Fordsburg boasts some of the best curry houses in the city - trust me! Renewed interest in the area has led to the local property owners asking for assistance to develop a framework for the area and investigations into the establishment of a CID are underway. Small beginnings but the potential for this area is great.
Chinatown
Chinatown (bounded by Commissioner, Alexander, Becker and Fox Streets) is one of the oldest precincts in Johannesburg and has been occupied by the Chinese community since the 1890s.
For many years it was an attraction for Joburgites but steadily succumbed to crime and decay and many Chinese businesses left the precinct as a result re-establishing themselves elsewhere. The revitalisation efforts in Newtown sparked off a renewed interest in the area amongst the remaining Chinese property owners and businesses and they established the First Chinatown Association which, with the JDA, developed a Chinatown Precinct Plan produced by Heather Dodd of Savage + Dodd.
Heather has had a great interest in the area for many years. The Plan complied with the principles adopted in the City Centre Development Framework and was approved when submitted to the Inner City Committee earlier this year.
The vision for this precinct is "to create a distinct cultural precinct with specific identifying features and to enhance the quality of an urban neighbourhood." As such it will be one of many such precincts throughout the world, I've visited equivalents in London, New York San Francisco and Vancouver - not yet got to Sydney to experience theirs.
One of the defining marks of these precincts is of course their gateways and these will be incorporated to demarcate our local precinct. Wolhuter Street will be pedestrianised and traffic calming introduced in Bezuidenhout Street and the precinct will generally undergo the streetscape upgrading that is being so successfully applied elsewhere in the city and stimulating development. Here, of course, the intention is to introduce and promote the use of traditional colours in signage and street lighting will be augmented by utilising red Chinese lanterns.
The precinct boasts some unique buildings - the Chinese Club building is one of the oldest buildings in Johannesburg although a refurbishment carried out some years ago gives the impression externally of a more modern building. The United Chinese Club building was built in 1947/8 by Wilhelm Pabst and is a significant landmark building that has recently undergone restoration.
The precinct already hosts a number of cultural events such as the Lunar New Year and Double Ten celebration and has great potential as a tourist and entertainment precinct. Initial investment is estimated at R2 million.
Next week we move to the southern and eastern edges of the centre city and the week after we'll finish this review with the centre city itself.
Did you know?
Following the Minister of Finance's announcement earlier this year regarding an accelerated depreciation allowance or urban regeneration tax credit, draft regulations have been published and will be applicable to the following South African cities and/or metropolitan areas, Buffalo City, Cape Town, Ekhurhuleni, Emalahleni, eThekwini, Johannesburg, Mafikeng, Mangaung, Matjabeng, Mbombela, Msunduzi, Nelson Mandela, Polokwane, Sol Plaatje and Tshwane.
So, how many do you know by their original names? All 15 - unbelievable, 10 - understandable, 5 - unacceptable, 2 - well everyone knows Cape Town and Johannesburg!
