September 3, 2007
By Neil Fraser
I HAD to drive through the greater part of the inner city a few times this past week and gained an impression of lots happening and lots about to happen.
The problem is, of course, that the inner city is so large that the activity becomes visually disputed and one has a feeling that not much is happening. So, with two thirds of the year (unbelievable!) having slipped away, here are my general impressions of where we are at this stage – certainly this is not an exhaustive review.
Newtown
Newtown is clearly in a lull but, hopefully, it is a lull before a storm of activity resumes. The conversion of Turbine Hall into Anglo Gold Ashanti's corporate headquarters is coming to an end and the company has moved in. I haven't had a chance to visit the refurbished building yet, but I believe it is quite stunning inside.
The SAB World of Beer has just completed a R20-million upgrade to its facility, which was opened last week. Over the road from it, I see that the crane on the Sci Bono extension site, after a long period of inactivity, is working again.
The Johannesburg Development Agency moved into its new "building within a building" (the Bus Factory) quite some time ago now; the refurbishment of the office block into residential flats in Quinn Street has been completed (now called The Newtown) and, next door, work has begun on the second of the old Premier Millings' office buildings.
The proposed large residential project named The Sidings has not yet started.
I noticed that a hoarding has gone up at a site just southwest of the Brickfields project and the Moving into Dance facility should begin this year, as should a number of other refurbishments and renovations.
Apart from these initiatives, very little seems to be happening on the ground. Absolutely no progress is visible on the Transport House development (although a successful bidder was announced by the Johannesburg Property Company at least a year ago, if not longer), nor is there any movement apparent on the Majestic site (opposite the Market Theatre), but I understand that this project will start in January 2008.
I also hear that a start on the large, mixed-use developments at the Central Place sites, delayed by an investigation into their heritage impact and subsequently re-designed, can be expected. But I doubt that we'll see activity this year.
Chinatown
Although an urban design framework for Chinatown, south of Newtown, was approved a few years back, nothing further is progressing and it seems to have fallen off the radar screen, which is a great pity as the area is quite grotty yet has some excellent potential.
Just south of it, work is progressing on the new office block I referred to a few months back and, on Diagonal Street, the refurbishing of 11 Diagonal Street and the AA Building is evidently proceeding, as is the Franklin.
Nothing appears to be happening around the provincial government precinct, the Rissik Street Post Office continues to crumble, the Barbican, diagonally opposite, stands as a continuing sentinel to private sector neglect but at least one hears that it, and the parking areas around it, are to be redeveloped, hopefully next year.
Refurbishing of buildings on the corners of Rissik, Market and Commissioner streets is under way, although nothing is apparently happening at the CAN/Shakespeare House complex opposite. There has been no more news on the probable sale of the Carlton Centre, but I hear that something may still happen this year.
Western end
To the west of the Carlton complex there is a great deal of refurbishment going on, but one tends not to notice it as it is mostly happening internally. The office building that replaced the grand old Colosseum building in the 1980s is about to be refurbished into 400 flats. The sales launch was held on Saturday, 1 September.
Construction will probably start in January with completion due for August or September next year. Another old building diagonally opposite the Carlton has recently been sold and will be converted into residential accommodation.
Buildings on the southern side of Gandhi Square have been upgraded and new fast food and coffee shops reflect the success of this initiative. Behind, ie south of, Gandhi Square is the wreck of the old police barracks I have spoken about before.
In Braamfontein, the Alexander Theatre re-opened a few months ago and new street art has been erected on the Juta Street corner, while the Eland on the corner of Bertha and Ameshoff streets is receiving final touches.
A lot of residential refurbishment of buildings has taken place in Braamies over the past year or so and at least one greenfields project, Bridgeview has recently started construction following the sell-out of its 400 units. I'm sure that one can expect more activity as ApexHi/Aengus gets stuck into its recent acquisition of the Dunwell and Softstone properties.
The new Metro entrance block on the west of the Metro Centre is in its final stages of construction and the restoration of the exterior of the Fort at Constitutional Hill is making progress, as is the construction of light towers over the two western retained sections of the Awaiting Trial block.
I also noticed some new art work under way on the paving at the square in front of the Constitutional Court. Some additional work to ramparts and walkways should begin soon, but sadly, the balance of the work to be done at Constitutional Hill to meet the vision of this becoming a major national and international heritage site has not been started.
In fact, it has not even been agreed, because of an inability of provincial and local politicians to sort out certain issues between their own agencies.
Hillbrow
The bulk of the upgrading work at the Hillbrow health precinct appears to have been completed, although at least one more stage focusing on parking, lighting and landscaping is planned to be completed this year. And a massive effort to upgrade Hillbrow, Berea and Yeoville will be launched shortly.
The public environment around the high court (the area known as the legal precinct) is under way, but work is going rather slowly.
And further to the east fashion square, or Fashion Kapitol as it is to be known, is advancing at snail's pace; evidently major problems with heritage and construction difficulties have delayed the completion of the project dramatically.
Fashion Kapitol will eventually house a coffee shop and restaurant and, of course, local fashion designers and manufacturers will sell and display their wares in boutique shops while regular fashion shows will be staged using the outdoor ramp that is being created.
A limited amount of pavement upgrading has taken place, mainly related to the area around Fashion Kapitol. The zig-zag pavement mosaics representing an electric sewing-machine pattern that identified the fashion district have not been repeated in the upgraded pavements, which I personally think is a great pity. It was a unique way to designate a specialist precinct.
A number of residential blocks have been refurbished in the area.
Down south
South of the fashion district, Absa is progressing well on the construction of its massive R1,1-billion block and to the east of the Absa campus, around Main Street, there is further upgrading of the public environment around Jewel City.
This is an R11-million upgrade, the cost of which is being shared between the public and private sectors. There is talk of expanding the nature of Jewel City to include all types of jewellery and precious metals, and residential developers have started investing in this area and to its north.
The Greater Ellis Park area upgrade is well under way, with work on its Northern Gateway and Simert/Sivewright roads progressing and quite a lot still planned in terms of urban environment upgrading. Parts of Bertrams will also become a focus area in the near future.
The Johannesburg Development Agency, which is responsible for the implementation of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, also known as Rea Vaya, is calling for a variety of consultants to tender their services on the project.
And the tender documents provide some insight into what is planned and what it will cost. The overall "nett construction value" is reflected as an estimated R1,2-billion with the first phase approximately half that and due for completion by the end February 2009.
This essentially covers Regina Mundi to Sunninghill. The proposed International Transit and Shopping Centre (ITSC) is well advanced in terms of preliminary design and, although there is nothing visual happening at the moment, construction should start this year on partially demolishing one of the Kazerne parking garages to provide a dedicated bus and pedestrian-way linking Queen Elizabeth Bridge and Harrison Street.
The basic idea of the ITSC is to rationalise long-distance and metered taxi ranking but the ultimate objective is to develop a world-class, inter-modal interchange along with mixed-use development - residential, office and retail. This will probably be through a public private partnership.
Still on the transportation aspect, visual evidence shows good progress on the R100-million Gautrain Station, which is going ahead apace.
So much seen and unseen but there is also a great deal more to be done. I obviously didn't cover the full inner city area in my wanderings but, hopefully, will pick up the balance of what's happening in a year-end review.
Regards,
Neil
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