Neil Fraser
November 3, 2003
OVER the next three to four weeks Citichat will provide an overview of what is and has been happening in the inner city over this past year. Five years ago when I did such a year-end overview it could be done in a single 'edition' but the city is boiling and, to do justice to everything that is happening it will be necessary to spread the review over a number of weeks.
Parking power!
One odd bit of evidence of the city's resurgence is the sheer number of parking bays just completed, currently under construction or planned. A major factor in the downward spiral of the city was the short-sighted decision made by city planners in the 60s/70s to restrict the number of parking bays in any new construction. Taken together with traffic congestion into and out of the city, lack of adequate street parking, high rates, rentals, land and building costs, many companies started to move out to new areas where such stupid restrictions didn't apply.
Crime and grime then moved in so that by the 90s even parking garages were being mothballed! I remember when the CJP had offices in the Carlton Centre, before Transnet purchased the building, at least one floor of parking was closed off and one could easily and at any time find parking anywhere on the remaining parking floors. No longer!
Earlier this year Liberty Life completed a new parking garage in Braamfontein for staff, 370 bays. Currently under construction are 1860 bays in the Constitution Hill super-basement; 430 bays underground at the junction of Ameshoff and Simmonds Streets for Sappi staff (305 shared with the Civic Theatre at night for their patrons); 350 bays for the JD group also in Braamfontein; a new parking garage for FNB at Bank City, 1 012 bays; 1000 bays at the Standard Bank super-block; up the road Zenprop is building a 200 bay seven-storey parking garage at 80 Marshall Street; a new staff parking garage of 830 bays is under construction at the ABSA campus.
My calculations are that 6 052 bays are under construction or have been completed this year at an overall cost of approximately R300 million and that 69% of the bays and 54% of the funds are private sector related.
That isn't the end of the parking story. A new project in Newtown that will start in 2004 will have provision for parking for 500 cars whilst an R8 million contract has recently been awarded, and has started, to clean up the disused railway sidings in Newtown which will mainly be used for public parking. In addition I hear talk of a number of other possible parking related projects for 2004.
Back to the overall review - I'm starting this week with developments in the northern central area of the Inner City and working west - next week the western end, then southern central and finally the eastern sector. Hold tight!
1. Constitution Hill
The Constitution is at the centre of South Africa's transition to democracy and its guardian is the Constitutional Court. The Court has occupied leased premises in Braamfontein basically since 1994, the beginning of our democratic era. However, a permanent facility is currently nearing completion situated on the 12.45 hectare site known as Constitution Hill situated between the high density residential neighbourhood of Hillbrow to its east and the mixed-use predominantly commercial node of Braamfontein to its west.
The site also houses three notorious prisons, 'The Fort' or 'Ekhulukhuthu' - the 'deep hole' or 'isolation cell' where white inmates were kept; Section 4 and 5 or the so-called 'Natives Gaol' built in 1902 and the 'Women's Gaol' built in 1909.
The Fort was built by Boer President Paul Kruger between 1896 and 1899. Together these buildings served as a prison complex right up to 1983. They are a sharp reminder of intimidation, incarceration and the cruelties and indignities of colonialism and apartheid. But stand on top of the north rampart of the Fort facing north and the past with its memories of all that was bad lies behind you, whilst the hope for the future and all that is good, as embodied in the Constitutional Court, lies before you.
Constitution Hill will comprise of much more than the previous prisons and the new Court when this massive project is ultimately completed probably in 2007.
It is anticipated to draw 130 000 visitors in 2004 - producing an R11million spend increasing to 200 000 visitors in 2006 generating a R14million spend. The project has both a public and a private sector component with a combined value of probably in excess of one billion rand by the time it is completed and its vision is "to create a major national and international heritage site anchored by the new Constitutional Court. It will comprise an integrated, multi-purpose and multi-dimensional space containing a range of complementary physical and institutional components".
Public sector ownership is RSA National Government, the Gauteng Provincial Government and the Johannesburg Metro Council. The Constitutional Court sod turning ceremony took place on the 18 October 2001 and the opening is scheduled for April 2004.
Phase 1 is the construction of the Constitutional Court (8 200 sq metres) and the renovation of the historic buildings - the Fort and rampart rehabilitation and landscaping; the Women's Gaol and Section 4 and 5 (Native's Gaol) together with the infrastructure for the whole project including the Super Basement - bulk excavation and lateral support.
2004 will also see a new three-storey building being erected in the previous prisoner's exercise yard of the Women's Gaol in addition to the renovations to the existing building. The renovated buildings and the 1 450 sq metres of new A-grade office space will house the Commission on Gender Equality and a number of other appropriate NGOs.
All in all probably R400 million is currently under some stage of construction or about to commence.
Phase 2 will focus on the commercial, retail, hospitality and residential components and this will probably be mainly private sector investment starting in 2004 and continuing through to 2007 and will include the following:
- Development Block A - Visitors Centre and shared facility complex (Heritage and Tourism Information Centre)
- Development Block B - Hotel, Retail and Hospitality - proposals already received and an hotel operator will be announced shortly
- Development blocks B, C and D will all be offices (currently between 22 000 and 25 000 sq metre is already committed or being negotiated)
- Redevelopment of listed buildings on site, Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital and Nurses Home into 110 upper income residential units
2. Medical precinct
The Medical or Health Precinct lies immediately to the South of Constitutional Hill. This involves a public sector investment estimated at R28 million excluding the relocation of the state mortuary from its previous site on Constitution Hill, a further R8.5 million. The relocation, completed this year, is into the historic so-called 'Non European Hospital' buildings and, however macabre this may sound, is quite 'state of the art'.
The precinct is being developed into a medical research area focusing on STDs, HIV/AIDS and TB but also providing family planning and support services for children, primary care services, legal and social services. The hub will be the existing Esselen Street Clinic which will be refurbished.
The precinct is well situated in relation to a number of private sector medical clinics such as the Argyle and Brenthurst and those around Clarendon Circle. Medical research will be a joint venture between Wits University Medical School and the City Council.
3. Braamfontein
Braamfontein is situated west of Constitution Hill and the Health precinct. Its name is that of the farm Braamfontein established by one Gert Bezuidenhout probably three decades before gold was discovered.
In 1862 it was divided into three parts one of which was subsequently sold in 1871 for seventy-five pounds. A Mr DP Ross, sent to establish a branch of Standard Bank on the Reef in 1886, wrote to his head office that the population of Braamfontein was then one hundred persons! Today the node has a workforce of about 25 000 people plus 20 000 students on the adjacent Wits University Campus.
A and B grade office space totals about 430 000 sq metres with rentals traditionally higher (R35 - 55/sq m) than those of the Centre City to its south (R8 - 35/sq m). Its economic anchors are a number of corporate headquarters (Sappi, Liberty Life, the JD Group, SA Breweries as well as Wits University, the Metropolitan Centre and the Civic Theatre.
The entire area is being upgraded through a number of private and public sector initiatives and the connections between the area and Constitution Hill are being closely examined and will be improved as will the civic space around Metro Centre.
Sappi is creating a single headquarters building out of two existing high rises, creating parking under two of the four streets that surround the property - the previous roadways over the underground parking will be turned into a splendid piazza.
Sappi has funded the design and planting of a magnificent new park to the south of the Civic Theatre, an Art Gallery and a Ballet Studio for the SA Ballet who are relocating from Pretoria to Johannesburg - the ballet studio will have large plate glass windows fronting onto the piazza so you will be able to sit and sip your coffee whilst watching the corps de ballet doing warm-up pliets at the barre! (sort of like whale watching in Hermanus only ballet dancers are prettier- well the females are!).
Over the past year/eighteen months the Civic Theatre has undergone major renovations in upgrading its restaurant and other facilities and is now looking to extend these further to take advantage of the upgraded Park and the Sappi Piazza.
Under Bernard Jay's dynamic management the Theatre is attracting about 300 000 patrons a year - another sign of inner city revitalisation. After many years of losses, the theatre now operates in the black.
As previously recorded, Liberty Life have just completed a 370 bay parking garage for staff and the JD group, having upgraded their headquarter building, are currently building a 350 bay parking garage for staff.
A major streetscaping and environmental upgrade is taking place across the upper third, or northern area of Braamfontein which is being entirely funded by the private sector (Sappi, Liberty Life, the JD Group, Apexhi) at a cost of R12 million. The work entails repaving all of the pavements (footways), providing improved lighting, street furniture and extensive tree planting.
A matching exercise is being carried our across the central portion of Braamfontein at a cost of R27.5 million by the council through the Johannesburg Development Agency.
This also has entailed upgrading the major road access to/from the northern suburbs, Jan Smuts/Bertha which separates the node from the Wits University campus to the west and which feeds into the new Nelson Mandela Bridge.
The streetscape upgrade is stimulating other work such as a Gateway feature to the university campus, pedestrian linkages through to Constitution Hill, upgrading the alleyways between buildings, providing public art, re-opening the historic Alexander Theatre, new pavement coffee shops, etc.
Drive south down the upgraded portion of Jan Smuts/Bertha Street and you will see how the service stations have been upgraded and a new motorcar showroom has also recently been completed. There are proposals to alter the Queen Elizabeth Bridge which links the node to the centre city over the railway lines, by providing linear markets to serve the pedestrian traffic that uses the bridge. A sort of 'African' Ponte Vecchio!
The eastern end of Empire Road forms a boundary between Braamfontein and Parktown and three new private sector developments have taken place on the Braamfontein edge. The first, on the corner of Joubert and Empire is a service station which opened earlier this year, to its west is a new Regional Headquarters Building for the South African Police Services (10 500 sq metres) and to the east of that an office complex which is about the same size. Disappointing that the regional SAPS chose to have a building built for themselves by the private sector on the edge of the inner city when there is adequate available accommodation in the inner city where their presence is sorely needed. I also guarantee that they could have struck a far better deal rental-wise.
The Wits University campus has over the past two or three decades turned its back on Braamfontein and become a totally introverted campus. An urban planning team appointed to develop a strategic development framework (SDF) for the campus appears to favour re-integrating the campus with Braamfontein by removing the hard security edge and improving general connectivity to the node and city centre. The SDF will be published before year-end.
A building on the eastern edge of the campus, bordering Jan Smuts/Bertha Street, previously used as the Dental School has been refurbished into the School of Arts and provides a linkage into the cultural arc. Three new buildings are planned for the campus, a Computerised Academic Centre, Library and Information building.
The university's Business School campus is situated north of Braamfontein and adjacent to the massive previous College of Education campus that has been taken over by the university and will be redeveloped as a Business, IT and Medical campus.
Directly to the south of the main university campus and west of the Braamfontein business node is an area which is known as Heartlands. Generally low rise and quite scruffy, it has become known for its gay clubs and there is talk of uplifting the area through streetscape upgrading, attracting specialist retail, galleries, residential and pavement cafes to encourage an extension of the current nocturnal use into day time activity.
The completion of the 284 metre long cable stayed Nelson Mandela Bridge opened earlier this year and the M1 Motorway on/off ramps have provided a much needed direct connection from both northern and southern suburbs into Newtown. The Bridge has also provided the city with a new icon.
The connection of course also provides a strong link between Braamfontein and Newtown. The bridge and ramps were completed at a cost of approximately R110 million. The bridge also provides a physical continuity for the Cultural Arc concept, more about that later.
By my reckoning, investment in the three areas reviewed totals R1.1 billion of which 47% is private sector (this excludes any Wits University investments).
Next week, we're moving south and west - its Newtown, Chinatown and Fordsburg - till then...
