Since Century City is experiencing a construction boom, Ive made a photo collection of various construction sites. Unfortunately, I don't have details. Too many going on. It's a totally different looking place from when I was there a year ago.
Add more if you please...:)

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Harkeb,

Good pictures. This post should probably be merged with one I created recently for Century City at:

Century City Development thread (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=410053)

The link can also be found in the Links to Developments page for easy reference.

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KnightsBridge 17 March 2007

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17March2007

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Deleted...sorry, I double posted pics.

17 March 2007

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The Island Club
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thanks for the awesome additions

I have to say I used to hate the place but it is looking darn good now. And the residential bits are great: superb value for money and great security.

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nice

this place is looking awesome, cant wait to go here in Dec! Knightsbridge is fantastic, any idea who bought the units on the bridge?

its funny how about ten years ago they questioned the feasibility or viability of housing of all types in this area along with housing at wingfield..i think they now have their answer.

besides the colasseum, there is not much positive for me to say about this area. i really dislike it. they had an opportunity to create a true mixed use town centre vibe and totally blew it on faux faux faux

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hmmm, looks like its raining in Cape Town. how is the weather like lately.

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hmmm, looks like its raining in Cape Town. how is the weather like lately.

:) The pics were taken Friday 27April when it did rain quite a bit.

Can you tell me about Century City? Details plz gentlemen. How many mins from capetown.

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18 May 2007 : Construction of R600m office park well underway

Construction of the first 11 office blocks at the 38 000 square metre The Estuaries office park at Century City is underway.

The low-rise office park, which is located on a high profile site off Century Boulevard, the main thoroughfare through Century City, will soon comprise a total of 18 office blocks ranging in size between 1000 and 4500 square metres.

Together these offices, which are being undertaken by 10 different developers and/or owner occupiers, will represent a total investment of around R600m when completed in the third quarter of 2008.

The 11 buildings currently under construction include five for a listed property fund which is looking to boost its Cape Town portfolio.

Greg Deans, a director of Rabie Property Group, which is the overall developer of the project, said that work on the remaining seven blocks was expected to start shortly as developers were contractually obliged to complete all construction by September next year at the latest.

“Interest from both tenants and purchasers has been extremely strong and a number of very serious negotiations are close to finalisation,” he said.

One of the 18 buildings, providing a total of 1870 square metres but catering to smaller owner occupiers, has been sold off on a sectional title basis with just one suite of 200 square metres remaining to be sold.

The office park is set around a beautifully landscaped garden with the buildings orientated to ensure they all have exposure and/or vistas of the park. Developers are also being required to maximize the garden frontage and where possible to link into the gardens’ meandering footpath system.

“Strict design guidelines are ensuring the urban environment is developed in an holistic manner with the buildings interfacing seamlessly with both the urban and natural environments,” he said.

The development will have boom control access and will also enjoy the high standard of security offered by Century City as a whole, said Deans.

The parking ratio is a minimum of four per 100 square metres with additional overflow parking to be provided nearby at a planned new transport interchange system for Century City.

Other new office projects at Century City include 17 000 square metre regional offices for Liberty Life which are nearing completion across Century Boulevard from The Estuaries and The Forum, a 10 000 square metre sectional title office development near the Ratanga Road entrance to Century City and where more than 90% of the sectional title office suites have been snapped up.
JAN 07
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MAR 07
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An idea of the scale of Century City
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The Property Magazine

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June 26, 2007

Increasing growth in areas such as Milnerton and Century City, just north west of Cape Town are resulting in an ongoing demand for quality, new commercial accommodation, particularly among local investors, as well as owner-occupiers, says Gil Ben-David, leasing and sales consultant for Pam Golding Commercial (PGC).

At sought-after Century City, situated just off the N1 highway and home to Canal Walk, the Western Cape's largest shopping centre, he says office accommodation for purchase is snapped up virtually as it becomes available. Recent sales by PGC include two sectional title units in the Century Square office block, comprising a 76sqm office with two parking bays and a 53sqm unit with one parking bay, sold for R912 000 and R592 800 (both including VAT) respectively.

'These are primarily taken up within days of being made available for purchase, mainly by local investors - who then let them out at the going rate of approximately R91/R103 per square metre (including VAT), thereby yielding a sound rental income. Century City is extremely sought after due to its convenient location - just 10 minutes from Cape Town's city centre and easily accessible to all major highways and particularly to those residing in the Western Seaboard and Northern Suburbs,' says Gil.

PGC currently has three office units available to lease at Century Square, comprising 53, 124 and 195sqm respectively. With 24-hour security, this A plus accommodation is fully air conditioned with quality finishes, and a key advantage is that they are corner units, providing maximum window space. At the adjacent Boulevard Place, where rentals are in the region of R108-R114 per square metre (including VAT), a prime located unit comprising 280sqm and complete with scenic mountain views is available to let. Undercover parking is also available.

At Northgate Island, located just off the N1 before Milnerton, brand new retail premises are now available to let, ranging in size from 150 to 400sqm, at a rental rate ranging from R136.80-R153.90 (including VAT) per square metre. Comments Ben-David: 'These quality premises are situated in Northgate Island in Section Street, an area comprising mainly those involved the motor industry eg those trading in motor vehicle, accessories etc.'

In another new development within Northgate - Northgate Business Park - next to Builder's Warehouse - which comprises 58 retail units with multi-use industrial space, a ground floor 200sqm sectional title unit has become available for re-sale, priced at R1.653 million (including VAT). This is brand new accommodation, ideal for a manufacturer or small import/export business. Being multi-use it's extremely flexible, offering retail, office, storage and floor space.

'While additional new developments to cater for the growing need for such commercial space are in the pipeline for these areas, we are constantly seeking new stock to make available to the marketplace,' adds Ben-David.

For further information contact Gil Ben-David of Pam Golding Commercial on +27 21 5572415 or +27 83 303 0933 or email gil.david@pamgolding.co.za.

The Property Magazine

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June 22, 2007

A luxurious three-bedroom, three-bathroom penthouse apartment in the flagship KnightsBridge development which spans the Grand Canal at Century City has been sold for a record R5.2-million.

This is the top price achieved within the Century City precinct where the average selling price of apartments is around R1.3-million and where new upmarket, freestanding, water-fronting homes on a private island are now selling for around R3m and R4m.

Rob Downey, sales manager of Property World, the specialist on-site agents for residential property at Century City, says they had achieved the R5.2m sale price for an 11th floor penthouse apartment which has its own private pool and deck, two lounges and exceptional 360-degree mountain and sea views.

Rob says the 237 square metre unit which has an additional 61 square metres of deck and balconies and three basement parking bays was originally sold by the developer, Rabie Property Group, for R4.4m and the seller only took transfer in late February this year. This would give the seller an 18 per cent return on her investment in a very short period of about five months from transfer to transfer.

‘It is further evidence of the relative strength of the Century City market where sales continue to beat all forecasts.

‘Buyers are only now discovering the true value and beauty of the Century City market particularly compared with the R40 000 per m² they would have been paying for a penthouse apartment in the Cape Town CBD and Waterfront area,’ he says.

Rob says they had originally forecast total sales for the current financial year of R221m as they had expected a softer market than the previous financial year when the company achieved total sales of R325m.

‘With still a month to go before the end of our financial year we are sitting with total sales of R373.5m which exceeds our forecast by nearly 70 per cent.’

Over the past 11 months Property World has sold 338 properties against a forecast of 258 for the current year.

Rob says the interest rate increases in February this year and the two last year had had little or no impact on demand for homes at Century City.

‘In fact we had a record April with 81 confirmed sales with a further 23 sales achieved in May when we had only anticipating doing 10 sales a month.’

Rob says while the latest 50 basis point increase announced this month and the new Credit Act would affect affordability levels and could thus be expected to slow the market in the short term they believed interest rates were close to, if not, already at their peak and the trend there after will be downward.

‘In our view building costs pose a greater risk to affordability than a short-term increase in interest rates.

‘South Africa is in the midst of a fixed investment boom due to accelerating economic growth having mopped up spare infrastructure capacity. This has put the industry under pressure with severe shortages of skilled labour and materials evident.

‘This situation will be exacerbated in the build-up to 2010 Soccer World Cup as major infrastructure projects committed to by Government get under way. These constraints will inevitably have a knock-on effect in terms of building costs.’

On the positive side, Rob says, they were expecting the World Cup to have a positive effect on house prices which they forecast would rise by an average of 40 per cent by 2010.

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Well it already has a rail line that sort of straddles the border of century city, so it would make sense to use that.

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New rail link in pipe-line for Century City Siphokazi Maposa 09 August, 2007 Cape Argus

Cape Town's fastest growing property development complex, Century City, could have a rail service with a brand-new station, ahead of the 2010 World Cup, to attract more public transport users to the facility.

Villa Italia

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Oasis

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Taken by Andres de Wet, on 28 December 2006

This station was planned in 1997 for the olympic games. back then many were worried about the potential of the olympic village component in the area. i think that question has been answered.

New rail link in pipe-line for Century City

By Siphokazi Maposa

Cape Town's fastest growing property development complex, Century City, could have a rail service with a brand new station, ahead of the 2010 World Cup, to attract more public transport users to the facility.

The R30-million project will also see other road networks in the area being upgraded to make it more accessible to commuting, said Eddie Chinnappen, the city's executive director for transport, roads and stormwater.

Century City, which boasts a large shopping mall, Canal Walk, up-market residential apartments and office space, has seen enormous growth over the past few years, attracting large volumes of people. The only drawback has been the use of public transport, with only 2 percent of shoppers using it to get to the complex.

Just over one kilometre from Century City, the Windemere Station development will be situated between Acacia Park and Kentemade stations on the Monte Vista line.

A footbridge will also be built to link the station and Canal Walk, which attracts about 20 million visitors a year.

Century City spokesperson Maggie Rowley said out of the 20 000 office workers that work there weekdays, only 7 000 used public transport. About 98 percent of shoppers use private transport.

"We are hoping the building of the station will help address public transport needs. The planning is well under way and we are hoping to have the project completed before 2010," she said.

Building is set to begin after the signing of an agreement between the developers and the SA Rail Commuter Corporation. The project, which will see Century City footing the bill, is part of the city's integrated transport plan that encourages developers to provide public transport plans for new developments.

Chinnappen said the city was dealing with the planning side of the project and was looking at support road projects such as extensions to Acre and Frans Conradie roads.

Century city-it's what I call vomit-venice

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Century city-it's what I call vomit-venice

Why vomit city :ohno: . I think Century City has come on really fantastic. Not sure which area you live, but had you driven past there the past 20 years, you will realise what a fantastic development this has been for the area, and taking into account that it is one of the busiest development areas in Cape Town, I give it a thumbs up

it has done a lot. but there was an opportunity to produce great architecture..and they failed.

^^ Exactly.But don't worry,Mother Theresa also did alot and she wasn't very pretty either.:jk:

Century city-it's what I call vomit-venice

I am a bit indifferent about it, but i think the original planners could have been a little bit prescriptive in terms of the type of architecture. there are some fantastic buildings but others like that bridge building looks really cheap and boring.

I'm sorry to report that they're building an even more indigestable Venice Village in Harties.Lets bring out the Minora's.

I'm sorry to report that they're building an even more indigestable Venice Village in Harties.Lets bring out the Minora's.


Blugh... green water, smelly water, stinky architecture... yet the filthy rich (or debt laden) will fall for this.

I'd rather have the whole "boere-baroque" anomaly fall into the water;)

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My personal opinion? Century City might as well have been in Bedfordview, Johannesburg. Too over the top. With a setting like that you don't need pretentious... In my opinion it is ugly.

The comeback of the Century


23 Aug 2007 - Finweek -

Intro
When Nedbank wanted to offload the property assets it inherited from its BoE acquisition in the early 2000s, there were few takers for what was then considered by many to be the ill-fated mega-mall Canal Walk at Century City in Cape Town

Mid-2003, veteran dealmakers Marc Wainer and Wolf Cesman, of asset managers Madison, together with the Ellerine brothers, picked up the shopping centre for R1,165bn. The mall cost R1,24bn to develop. The deal turned out to be the biggest property coup of the decade.

Four years later the value of Canal Walk - 80% owned by Madison-managed Hyprop Investments - had surged to R3,75bn. It's now not only South Africa's biggest shopping centre but probably also the most lucrative, raking in big bucks for Hyprop's shareholders. The Rabie Group bought the rest of Century City in 2004 and helped turn what used to be a deserted swampland into one of Cape Town's most desirable mixed-use precincts.

However, the Century City success story also left a number of casualties in its wake. In the late Nineties/early 2000s, investors lost millions in the unceremonious demise of former JSE darling Monex, the original owner and developer of Century City. In less than four years the stock plummeted from a high of 1300c to less than 80c/share.

Management blunders were blamed for the company's financial woes and the subsequent delisting of Monex early in 2002. At the time, Monex minority investors were understandably peeved at what seemed to be an overly speedy exit strategy by BoE, which was then the principal shareholder. Despite the losses reported by Monex when Century City first got off the ground in 2000/2001, some questioned why BoE would let a potential gold mine slip through its fingers.

There were also suggestions at the time that the relationship between BoE and Martin Wragge, former Monex CEO and main driver behind Century City, had soured. And when Wragge suddenly resigned amid rumours of insider trading in September 2001, it left more questions unanswered.

Soon after his resignation, Wragge went offshore. Nobody in media circles heard from the enigmatic developer again. That was until a month ago, when Wragge's name popped up in a press release relating to a R4bn mixed-use development in which he's now involved in China.

Finweek tracked down the 59-year-old Wragge to talk about the old Monex days and how he ended up building another "Century City" in China. Asked what exactly went wrong at Monex, Wragge says: "It was a tragedy that shouldn't have been. Had Monex been allowed to work its way into its defined future, it would today be one of the most successful real estate companies in the country. Instead, Rabie and Hyprop are flourishing with those assets.

"At the time, the picture that had been painted of the company's financial position appeared so bleak that people who should have known better - people who knew that Canal Walk and the rest of the business, apart from theme park Ratanga Junction, were firing on all four cylinders - simply threw in the towel and took the handout. So it was with a great deal of sadness that I watched BoE take Monex private at a miserable 80c/share."

But Wragge concedes that Century City was a massive gamble for Monex from the outset. The site was acquired in 1996, when Monex bought embattled JSE-listed developer Ilco Homes. Ilco was indebted to Christo Wiese's Boland Bank (later acquired by BoE) for R80m and was losing R1m/month. Wragge says the bank's break-up value was R56m, but Monex saw big possibilities for the site - notwithstanding the fact that it was zoned for residential development and parts of it were under water.

Says Wragge: "We knew that if we failed to get the land rezoned, we were going to go down the toilet. No cigar. For Boland, Ilco was already a basket case and they couldn't dig themselves out without our kind of expertise.''

Wragge initially had a tough time persuading financial institutions and the retail community that Century City was a logical and viable concept. It was generally dismissed as being overly ambitious and way too capital intensive.

Wragge says Century City was of necessity a grand vision. "Only something of that scale could generate the kind of capital required to overcome the disabilities of the site. When we acquired the land in 1996 it was basically a swampland, under water and with no access to the N1. It had to be a big scheme in order to carry the massive infrastructural cost of making it work at all levels."

Wragge wanted to drive value into the site by establishing a regional shopping centre that would anchor the entire Century City development. "Getting Canal Walk off the ground was always the nut to crack - the key success factor to the whole development. From my experience in developing Tyger Valley Centre, and thereafter quite a bit of the office development around it, I knew that if we could anchor the development with a centre of sufficient scale, everything thereafter would become a self-fulfilling prophecy."

However, getting retailers to buy into a mega-mall concept in the area proved more difficult than Wragge ever expected. "Initially, the retail community was positively hostile to the notion of Canal Walk. The common view was that it would only serve to cannibalise turnovers from existing stores in Tyger Valley, Sanlam Parow, N1 City, Table View, the Cape Town CBD, Cavendish and the V&A Waterfront."

A breakthrough came once the site was rezoned from residential to commercial, with 680 000sq m of commercial bulk approved in one package - at the time believed to be the single largest rezoning ever approved in SA. Wragge managed to convince a few of SA's major retailers to break ranks and come on board. He signed up 15 leases that would take up 60% of the 125 000sq m mega-mall.

"With those leases signed it took us three months to pull together the R1,6bn finance needed for both Canal Walk and what was to become Ratanga Junction. In April 1998, we started construction."
But no sooner had construction started than Monex hit a major stumbling block: this time in the form of the Milnerton Ratepayers' Association, which objected vehemently to the location of the amusement park designed to form part of the shopping centre's food court.

"Residents feared that the joyous screams of customers on roller coasters emanating from the shopping centre would keep them awake at night while driving the value of their homes down."

The run-in with the ratepayers' association precipitated a major crisis for Monex. Around R100m worth of roller coasters and other amusement park toys were already being manufactured in the United States and Europe. Instead of running the risk of being locked in a protracted battle in the Cape Town Supreme Court, Wragge agreed to relocate the amusement park to the corner of Century City adjacent to the N1 and Ysterplaat Airfield, where it still stands.

Wragge deeply regrets ever agreeing to such a compromise. "In retrospect, I lost Monex with that decision." Wragge says instead of simply adding dimension to the food court with a collection of high profile coaster rides they now had to make the rides work as a stand-alone attraction. To make the proposition financially viable, Monex had to ensure that the amusement park would be a destination in its own right by pulling and holding people for a minimum five to seven hours per visit.

And so Ratanga Junction was born. Instead of becoming SA's own Disneyland - as it was widely touted at the time - Ratanga became the major source of Monex's money woes. Instead of spending R180m on a few roller coaster rides as part of the Canal Walk offering, the cost of building a fully-fledged theme park with all its infrastructural and administration requirements, including food and beverage support and parking, doubled to R360m.

Up to that point in early 1998 the market clearly liked what it saw in Monex under Wragge's creative and bold leadership. Within two years, the company's market cap jumped from R89m (in 1996, when the name changed from Ilco to Monex) to a hefty R1,182bn. The company simultaneously managed to turn its poor earnings history around: from a loss of R12,7m in 1995 to a profit of R11,4m in 1997.

In 1998, Monex reported a 340% profit rise to R39m. With Monex finally on a roll, Ratanga opened to much fanfare in December 1998. But attendances were terrifyingly thin. Though Monex still reported a profit of R66m by mid-1999 (76% up from the previous year) the market sensed disaster. Its share price dropped like a stone. Within a year, the price was down from 875c to less than 400c/share. Market cap halved to R528m. In 2000, Monex reported a loss of R43m after absorbing a R65m loss in the first year of operation at Ratanga.

Wragge maintains that the loss looked worse than it actually was. "Against my better judgement, the R43m loss included R22,8m of pre-opening expenses at Ratanga, which had been capitalised in the previous year and were now written off. It may have made good sense from an operating and accounting perspective, but I knew it would compound the impact of the loss on the market - which it did."

Wragge says until Ratanga opened, BoE were hands off. "We were perceived to be doing what we had to do and doing it well. We had a great relationship with former CE Phil Biden and his team, which included Tom Boardman, who was very close to us and helped us a lot. We'd taken enormous gambles and pulled them off, one after the other."

But Wragge says the real challenge came in late 1999, when Standard Bank looked as if it were going to default on providing its committed R621m loan to Canal Walk. "That scared the crap out of all of us. Some people in BoE ventured that such a default could take the bank down. The very visible failure of Ratanga had unnerved Standard Bank's management. Although all our equity of R870m had gone into the project and we were on target with the leasing of retail space at Canal Walk, at the critical moment Standard Bank wavered in following through with the loan."

Wragge says that precipitated three and a half of the longest months of his life as Monex struggled to keep construction on course without any money. "Neither the staff, contractors nor the market knew that we were potentially heading for the biggest fall in SA's real estate history."

That put huge pressure on Wragge's relationship with BoE. He lost 27kg during that time. The funding crisis was later resolved after Standard Bank reduced its lending from R621m to R500m. Wragge was given explicit instructions to cut Canal Walk's budget by the R121m shortfall. "I was told that there would be not one more penny in equity."

Well-known Cape Town businessman Mike Rose Innes (formerly head of Invicta Holdings) was then appointed chairman of Monex. Wragge describes Rose Innes as a "no-nonsense" kind of guy. "He arrived with a view that I was a loose cannon. But after a rocky start our relationship settled down as he got to understand some of the intricacies of what we were doing. In fact, he helped enormously in bringing balance to the needs of both companies."

Wragge says the intervention of Rose Innes was particularly valuable during the finishing stages of Canal Walk, when BoE tried to sell off the centre while Monex was still building and trying to lease the space. "That sent signals of distress to the market, which did Monex, Canal Walk and BoE no good at all."

Wragge says in the end Monex finished Canal Walk on time and R121m under budget. He was confident that the loss reported in 2000 at Ratanga could be reversed in 2001, as other Monex divisions had never stopped trading profitably. That was without any contribution from Canal Walk, which was expected to start flowing through from 2001.

"So I was quite bullish going into 2001. I believed we'd be able to report that Monex was on the mend. With sustainable earnings from Canal Walk there for the first time to underpin future income."

That was not to be. Instead, management changed its strategy. Wragge says for reasons he couldn't comprehend at the time the maiden dividend from Canal Walk - which by then had taken off like a rocket - was passed. He believes that though the results would only have been for four months, a maiden dividend would have given shareholders a taste of what was to come. "But Monex shareholders never had a chance to share in Canal Walk's success - a perpetual pleasure now reserved for Hyprop shareholders."

By the time the second dividend came around, Monex was no longer listed. Wragge claims that the Monex board then set about decimating Monex's net asset value, writing off R264m. "Most of that was in respect of Ratanga, which could be justified to a degree. But a big chunk was also in respect of Canal Walk, with which I had major difficulty. Instead of coming back in 2001 and reporting a profit of around R30m - including a proportional contribution from Canal Walk - we reported a catastrophic loss of R243m."

Wragge says that left the market with the impression that Monex's position was virtually irredeemable. "It looked as if Monex was going to get sucked down the tubes. To me, the opposite was true. We were successfully overcoming all our problems and, given a little elbow room, I could see lots of blue sky ahead. We were fixing Ratanga, having got it to virtual break even, with the prospect of a small contribution in following years. And we had delivered Canal Walk."

Wragge says Canal Walk was in fact performing better than projected and demand for residential and office space was picking up. "What more could we ask for, except to be cut loose to get back to our knitting while our masters worked on getting back to theirs."

It was by then clear to Wragge that BoE saw a future without Monex. Its stake in Monex - specifically Ratanga - was perceived to be damaging BoE's share price and market cap.

"BoE just wanted out - any way possible. So Monex was to be restrained from doing what it had been doing successfully for 20 odd years... a pitiful waste of fabulous assets and an enormously skilled development team."

After the completion of Canal Walk, no new development initiatives were sanctioned, not even residential, says Wragge. "Instead, we were compelled to liquidate what we could in an attempt to make Monex debt-free - which would have been exemplary for a real estate company with the 33% stake we had in Canal Walk and the enormous land bank we were in the process of realising in Century City."

Wragge says Monex's debt at the time amounted to less than the equity investment in Canal Walk. "Instead of going forward with such obvious opportunities as the Bell-ville Waterfront - which we'd been itching to start - it was sold to another developer who implemented our plan and made an immediate killing."

Wragge estimates that the Bellville development generated a profit of around R100m. Monex sold it for R22,5m. It was that sort of "slash and burn" action that put him at serious odds with BoE management, says Wragge.

Then in mid-2001 Wragge sold some shares without timeously reporting the sale, something he says he then didn't know he was required to do.

"I reported the sale routinely when next I saw the other directors and was advised that I should report it immediately, which I did the same day. I sold less than 1% of my holdings for the equivalent of about a month's salary. It was not to my mind a big deal."

Wragge says the reaction that followed from the media was staggering. "Accusations of insider trading - although dismissed at the time by Tom Boardman as a nine-day wonder - put my relationship with BoE management under additional strain.''
Wragge says he made an innocent error. The Financial Services Board (FSB) later found no grounds on which to pursue the matter. "Unfortunately the FSB's decision took months in the coming. By that time a substantial amount of damage had been done to my reputation, damage that lingers today."

That same year, in September 2001, Wragge resigned. "I was exhausted. I'd been at odds with the new BoE team for almost two years. I was against the sale of Canal Walk, because I knew what it would do for Monex. Moreover, I was against the sale of the 100 plus hectares of remaining commercial land at Century City, which I valued at more than R1bn. However, the BoE guys wanted it sold at almost any price - anything to realise cash quickly. So with the writing on the wall, I took my leave."
A week after Wragge resigned he went to China as part of an SA trade mission. Wragge says he got bored, started wandering around the streets and spotted an opportunity to build another Century City between the merging twin cities of Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia Province. "I asked to see the mayor, who was so taken by the idea that four days later I had a conceptual deal to build 1m sq m of bulk on a 180ha site."

Wragge took the concept to a few British contacts - people who were involved in Monex's £2bn (R28bn) joint venture bid in 2000 to redevelop The Dome in London.

The capital for the China project - named Forest Park - was raised through the British-based China Development Company. Wragge was made its CEO. Many of his former Monex colleagues later joined him in China. Wragge's team at Forest Park has already completed more than 1 000 apartments, 400 villas, a public park - now managed by ex-Ratanga people - and 11km of canals.

Wragge plans to return to SA full time within the next three years, once the R4bn project is completed. "I want to slow down, smell the roses and spend more time with my four-year old daughter. A studio in LA wants to make a movie of a script I have written, which I would like to direct when I get the time."

Wragge has over the past two decades produced three motion pictures, one of which he also directed, which apparently fared "adequately" at international box offices.
But he won't be leaving the development game for good. The SA development arm of Leisure Retail Property Solutions (LRPS), of which Wragge is CEO, still operates from an office in Canal Walk. Last year LRPS completed the Mountain Mill Shopping Centre in Worcester, together with Retail Africa. The company is involved in a 20-hectare commercial township and a 200-hectare residential township in Worcester. It is also redeveloping Pier 14 (some 37 000 sq m) in Port Elizabeth.

Wragge has his sights set on two more developments on the scale of Century City in southern Africa. Given his track record, there's no doubt that Wragge has the ability to make them happen.

How hyprop's R1,65bn bet paid off

"When we bought Canal Walk from Nedbank in 2003 everyone thought it was a dog," says Marc Wainer. The market couldn't have been further off the mark.

Wainer and fellow industry stalwart Wolf Cesman - co-founders of property asset manager Madison - secured the Cape Town mega-mall for R1,165bn. It's currently worth R3,75bn - a profit of R2,58bn within four years. In terms of return on cost, Canal Walk has no doubt been the deal of the decade.

Shareholders of Hyprop, one of the listed funds managed by Madison, are the main beneficiaries of Canal Walk's spectacular growth story. Hyprop owns 80% of the centre, with the Ellerine brothers holding a 20% stake.

At the time Wainer and Cesman were bidding against three other suitors for Canal Walk, including Liberty Life, Old Mutual and a Grayprop/Sycom consortium. Cesman says their price wasn't initially the highest. But it was the most attractive, as it was the only clean offer on the table with no conditions attached. And that's what Nedbank clearly wanted back then, says Cesman.
As soon as they took ownership of the centre in October 2003, Wainer and Cesman changed the management team, drastically cut back on expenses, tweaked the tenant mix and let the vacant space. Initially, 12% of the centre's total 130 000sq m was empty. Vacancies are now down to less than 1%.

Says Cesman: "There was no rocket science involved. We applied the basics. Nedbank didn't have experience in property management and we knew that the centre offered turnaround potential."

However, both Wainer and Cesman concede they had luck on their side. Soon after Canal Walk was acquired, SA's economy turned and consumers started their spending spree in earnest.

Says Cesman: "It's easy to look clever afterwards, but at the time there was a fair amount of risk involved, as the bulk of the leases were coming up for renewal in 2005. If retail spending turned against us - which was a possibility at the time - we wouldn't have been able to pass increases on to tenants."

However, by 2005 sales turnover was rocketing and Wainer and Cesman managed to get the rental increases they were hoping for. "We also can't take credit for the brilliant design and layout of Canal Walk," says Cesman. "It's magnificently built. We need to spend very little on refurbishing the centre over the next 20 years."

Key question is how long will Hyprop hang on to the mall? With so many offshore asset chasers sniffing around, you'd assume that cash-flush overseas buyers are prepared to pay a hefty premium for a landmark property such as Canal Walk. "That may be so - but we're not selling,'' says Cesman.

The comeback of the Century


23 Aug 2007 - Finweek -

Intro
When Nedbank wanted to offload the property assets it inherited from its BoE acquisition in the early 2000s, there were few takers for what was then considered by many to be the ill-fated mega-mall Canal Walk at Century City in Cape Town

Mid-2003, veteran dealmakers Marc Wainer and Wolf Cesman, of asset managers Madison, together with the Ellerine brothers, picked up the shopping centre for R1,165bn. The mall cost R1,24bn to develop. The deal turned out to be the biggest property coup of the decade.

Four years later the value of Canal Walk - 80% owned by Madison-managed Hyprop Investments - had surged to R3,75bn. It's now not only South Africa's biggest shopping centre but probably also the most lucrative, raking in big bucks for Hyprop's shareholders. The Rabie Group bought the rest of Century City in 2004 and helped turn what used to be a deserted swampland into one of Cape Town's most desirable mixed-use precincts.

However, the Century City success story also left a number of casualties in its wake. In the late Nineties/early 2000s, investors lost millions in the unceremonious demise of former JSE darling Monex, the original owner and developer of Century City. In less than four years the stock plummeted from a high of 1300c to less than 80c/share.

Management blunders were blamed for the company's financial woes and the subsequent delisting of Monex early in 2002. At the time, Monex minority investors were understandably peeved at what seemed to be an overly speedy exit strategy by BoE, which was then the principal shareholder. Despite the losses reported by Monex when Century City first got off the ground in 2000/2001, some questioned why BoE would let a potential gold mine slip through its fingers.

There were also suggestions at the time that the relationship between BoE and Martin Wragge, former Monex CEO and main driver behind Century City, had soured. And when Wragge suddenly resigned amid rumours of insider trading in September 2001, it left more questions unanswered.

Soon after his resignation, Wragge went offshore. Nobody in media circles heard from the enigmatic developer again. That was until a month ago, when Wragge's name popped up in a press release relating to a R4bn mixed-use development in which he's now involved in China.

Finweek tracked down the 59-year-old Wragge to talk about the old Monex days and how he ended up building another "Century City" in China. Asked what exactly went wrong at Monex, Wragge says: "It was a tragedy that shouldn't have been. Had Monex been allowed to work its way into its defined future, it would today be one of the most successful real estate companies in the country. Instead, Rabie and Hyprop are flourishing with those assets.

"At the time, the picture that had been painted of the company's financial position appeared so bleak that people who should have known better - people who knew that Canal Walk and the rest of the business, apart from theme park Ratanga Junction, were firing on all four cylinders - simply threw in the towel and took the handout. So it was with a great deal of sadness that I watched BoE take Monex private at a miserable 80c/share."

But Wragge concedes that Century City was a massive gamble for Monex from the outset. The site was acquired in 1996, when Monex bought embattled JSE-listed developer Ilco Homes. Ilco was indebted to Christo Wiese's Boland Bank (later acquired by BoE) for R80m and was losing R1m/month. Wragge says the bank's break-up value was R56m, but Monex saw big possibilities for the site - notwithstanding the fact that it was zoned for residential development and parts of it were under water.

Says Wragge: "We knew that if we failed to get the land rezoned, we were going to go down the toilet. No cigar. For Boland, Ilco was already a basket case and they couldn't dig themselves out without our kind of expertise.''

Wragge initially had a tough time persuading financial institutions and the retail community that Century City was a logical and viable concept. It was generally dismissed as being overly ambitious and way too capital intensive.

Wragge says Century City was of necessity a grand vision. "Only something of that scale could generate the kind of capital required to overcome the disabilities of the site. When we acquired the land in 1996 it was basically a swampland, under water and with no access to the N1. It had to be a big scheme in order to carry the massive infrastructural cost of making it work at all levels."

Wragge wanted to drive value into the site by establishing a regional shopping centre that would anchor the entire Century City development. "Getting Canal Walk off the ground was always the nut to crack - the key success factor to the whole development. From my experience in developing Tyger Valley Centre, and thereafter quite a bit of the office development around it, I knew that if we could anchor the development with a centre of sufficient scale, everything thereafter would become a self-fulfilling prophecy."

However, getting retailers to buy into a mega-mall concept in the area proved more difficult than Wragge ever expected. "Initially, the retail community was positively hostile to the notion of Canal Walk. The common view was that it would only serve to cannibalise turnovers from existing stores in Tyger Valley, Sanlam Parow, N1 City, Table View, the Cape Town CBD, Cavendish and the V&A Waterfront."

A breakthrough came once the site was rezoned from residential to commercial, with 680 000sq m of commercial bulk approved in one package - at the time believed to be the single largest rezoning ever approved in SA. Wragge managed to convince a few of SA's major retailers to break ranks and come on board. He signed up 15 leases that would take up 60% of the 125 000sq m mega-mall.

"With those leases signed it took us three months to pull together the R1,6bn finance needed for both Canal Walk and what was to become Ratanga Junction. In April 1998, we started construction."
But no sooner had construction started than Monex hit a major stumbling block: this time in the form of the Milnerton Ratepayers' Association, which objected vehemently to the location of the amusement park designed to form part of the shopping centre's food court.

"Residents feared that the joyous screams of customers on roller coasters emanating from the shopping centre would keep them awake at night while driving the value of their homes down."

The run-in with the ratepayers' association precipitated a major crisis for Monex. Around R100m worth of roller coasters and other amusement park toys were already being manufactured in the United States and Europe. Instead of running the risk of being locked in a protracted battle in the Cape Town Supreme Court, Wragge agreed to relocate the amusement park to the corner of Century City adjacent to the N1 and Ysterplaat Airfield, where it still stands.

Wragge deeply regrets ever agreeing to such a compromise. "In retrospect, I lost Monex with that decision." Wragge says instead of simply adding dimension to the food court with a collection of high profile coaster rides they now had to make the rides work as a stand-alone attraction. To make the proposition financially viable, Monex had to ensure that the amusement park would be a destination in its own right by pulling and holding people for a minimum five to seven hours per visit.

And so Ratanga Junction was born. Instead of becoming SA's own Disneyland - as it was widely touted at the time - Ratanga became the major source of Monex's money woes. Instead of spending R180m on a few roller coaster rides as part of the Canal Walk offering, the cost of building a fully-fledged theme park with all its infrastructural and administration requirements, including food and beverage support and parking, doubled to R360m.

Up to that point in early 1998 the market clearly liked what it saw in Monex under Wragge's creative and bold leadership. Within two years, the company's market cap jumped from R89m (in 1996, when the name changed from Ilco to Monex) to a hefty R1,182bn. The company simultaneously managed to turn its poor earnings history around: from a loss of R12,7m in 1995 to a profit of R11,4m in 1997.

In 1998, Monex reported a 340% profit rise to R39m. With Monex finally on a roll, Ratanga opened to much fanfare in December 1998. But attendances were terrifyingly thin. Though Monex still reported a profit of R66m by mid-1999 (76% up from the previous year) the market sensed disaster. Its share price dropped like a stone. Within a year, the price was down from 875c to less than 400c/share. Market cap halved to R528m. In 2000, Monex reported a loss of R43m after absorbing a R65m loss in the first year of operation at Ratanga.

Wragge maintains that the loss looked worse than it actually was. "Against my better judgement, the R43m loss included R22,8m of pre-opening expenses at Ratanga, which had been capitalised in the previous year and were now written off. It may have made good sense from an operating and accounting perspective, but I knew it would compound the impact of the loss on the market - which it did."

Wragge says until Ratanga opened, BoE were hands off. "We were perceived to be doing what we had to do and doing it well. We had a great relationship with former CE Phil Biden and his team, which included Tom Boardman, who was very close to us and helped us a lot. We'd taken enormous gambles and pulled them off, one after the other."

But Wragge says the real challenge came in late 1999, when Standard Bank looked as if it were going to default on providing its committed R621m loan to Canal Walk. "That scared the crap out of all of us. Some people in BoE ventured that such a default could take the bank down. The very visible failure of Ratanga had unnerved Standard Bank's management. Although all our equity of R870m had gone into the project and we were on target with the leasing of retail space at Canal Walk, at the critical moment Standard Bank wavered in following through with the loan."

Wragge says that precipitated three and a half of the longest months of his life as Monex struggled to keep construction on course without any money. "Neither the staff, contractors nor the market knew that we were potentially heading for the biggest fall in SA's real estate history."

That put huge pressure on Wragge's relationship with BoE. He lost 27kg during that time. The funding crisis was later resolved after Standard Bank reduced its lending from R621m to R500m. Wragge was given explicit instructions to cut Canal Walk's budget by the R121m shortfall. "I was told that there would be not one more penny in equity."

Well-known Cape Town businessman Mike Rose Innes (formerly head of Invicta Holdings) was then appointed chairman of Monex. Wragge describes Rose Innes as a "no-nonsense" kind of guy. "He arrived with a view that I was a loose cannon. But after a rocky start our relationship settled down as he got to understand some of the intricacies of what we were doing. In fact, he helped enormously in bringing balance to the needs of both companies."

Wragge says the intervention of Rose Innes was particularly valuable during the finishing stages of Canal Walk, when BoE tried to sell off the centre while Monex was still building and trying to lease the space. "That sent signals of distress to the market, which did Monex, Canal Walk and BoE no good at all."

Wragge says in the end Monex finished Canal Walk on time and R121m under budget. He was confident that the loss reported in 2000 at Ratanga could be reversed in 2001, as other Monex divisions had never stopped trading profitably. That was without any contribution from Canal Walk, which was expected to start flowing through from 2001.

"So I was quite bullish going into 2001. I believed we'd be able to report that Monex was on the mend. With sustainable earnings from Canal Walk there for the first time to underpin future income."

That was not to be. Instead, management changed its strategy. Wragge says for reasons he couldn't comprehend at the time the maiden dividend from Canal Walk - which by then had taken off like a rocket - was passed. He believes that though the results would only have been for four months, a maiden dividend would have given shareholders a taste of what was to come. "But Monex shareholders never had a chance to share in Canal Walk's success - a perpetual pleasure now reserved for Hyprop shareholders."

By the time the second dividend came around, Monex was no longer listed. Wragge claims that the Monex board then set about decimating Monex's net asset value, writing off R264m. "Most of that was in respect of Ratanga, which could be justified to a degree. But a big chunk was also in respect of Canal Walk, with which I had major difficulty. Instead of coming back in 2001 and reporting a profit of around R30m - including a proportional contribution from Canal Walk - we reported a catastrophic loss of R243m."

Wragge says that left the market with the impression that Monex's position was virtually irredeemable. "It looked as if Monex was going to get sucked down the tubes. To me, the opposite was true. We were successfully overcoming all our problems and, given a little elbow room, I could see lots of blue sky ahead. We were fixing Ratanga, having got it to virtual break even, with the prospect of a small contribution in following years. And we had delivered Canal Walk."

Wragge says Canal Walk was in fact performing better than projected and demand for residential and office space was picking up. "What more could we ask for, except to be cut loose to get back to our knitting while our masters worked on getting back to theirs."

It was by then clear to Wragge that BoE saw a future without Monex. Its stake in Monex - specifically Ratanga - was perceived to be damaging BoE's share price and market cap.

"BoE just wanted out - any way possible. So Monex was to be restrained from doing what it had been doing successfully for 20 odd years... a pitiful waste of fabulous assets and an enormously skilled development team."

After the completion of Canal Walk, no new development initiatives were sanctioned, not even residential, says Wragge. "Instead, we were compelled to liquidate what we could in an attempt to make Monex debt-free - which would have been exemplary for a real estate company with the 33% stake we had in Canal Walk and the enormous land bank we were in the process of realising in Century City."

Wragge says Monex's debt at the time amounted to less than the equity investment in Canal Walk. "Instead of going forward with such obvious opportunities as the Bell-ville Waterfront - which we'd been itching to start - it was sold to another developer who implemented our plan and made an immediate killing."

Wragge estimates that the Bellville development generated a profit of around R100m. Monex sold it for R22,5m. It was that sort of "slash and burn" action that put him at serious odds with BoE management, says Wragge.

Then in mid-2001 Wragge sold some shares without timeously reporting the sale, something he says he then didn't know he was required to do.

"I reported the sale routinely when next I saw the other directors and was advised that I should report it immediately, which I did the same day. I sold less than 1% of my holdings for the equivalent of about a month's salary. It was not to my mind a big deal."

Wragge says the reaction that followed from the media was staggering. "Accusations of insider trading - although dismissed at the time by Tom Boardman as a nine-day wonder - put my relationship with BoE management under additional strain.''
Wragge says he made an innocent error. The Financial Services Board (FSB) later found no grounds on which to pursue the matter. "Unfortunately the FSB's decision took months in the coming. By that time a substantial amount of damage had been done to my reputation, damage that lingers today."

That same year, in September 2001, Wragge resigned. "I was exhausted. I'd been at odds with the new BoE team for almost two years. I was against the sale of Canal Walk, because I knew what it would do for Monex. Moreover, I was against the sale of the 100 plus hectares of remaining commercial land at Century City, which I valued at more than R1bn. However, the BoE guys wanted it sold at almost any price - anything to realise cash quickly. So with the writing on the wall, I took my leave."
A week after Wragge resigned he went to China as part of an SA trade mission. Wragge says he got bored, started wandering around the streets and spotted an opportunity to build another Century City between the merging twin cities of Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia Province. "I asked to see the mayor, who was so taken by the idea that four days later I had a conceptual deal to build 1m sq m of bulk on a 180ha site."

Wragge took the concept to a few British contacts - people who were involved in Monex's £2bn (R28bn) joint venture bid in 2000 to redevelop The Dome in London.

The capital for the China project - named Forest Park - was raised through the British-based China Development Company. Wragge was made its CEO. Many of his former Monex colleagues later joined him in China. Wragge's team at Forest Park has already completed more than 1 000 apartments, 400 villas, a public park - now managed by ex-Ratanga people - and 11km of canals.

Wragge plans to return to SA full time within the next three years, once the R4bn project is completed. "I want to slow down, smell the roses and spend more time with my four-year old daughter. A studio in LA wants to make a movie of a script I have written, which I would like to direct when I get the time."

Wragge has over the past two decades produced three motion pictures, one of which he also directed, which apparently fared "adequately" at international box offices.
But he won't be leaving the development game for good. The SA development arm of Leisure Retail Property Solutions (LRPS), of which Wragge is CEO, still operates from an office in Canal Walk. Last year LRPS completed the Mountain Mill Shopping Centre in Worcester, together with Retail Africa. The company is involved in a 20-hectare commercial township and a 200-hectare residential township in Worcester. It is also redeveloping Pier 14 (some 37 000 sq m) in Port Elizabeth.

Wragge has his sights set on two more developments on the scale of Century City in southern Africa. Given his track record, there's no doubt that Wragge has the ability to make them happen.

How hyprop's R1,65bn bet paid off

"When we bought Canal Walk from Nedbank in 2003 everyone thought it was a dog," says Marc Wainer. The market couldn't have been further off the mark.

Wainer and fellow industry stalwart Wolf Cesman - co-founders of property asset manager Madison - secured the Cape Town mega-mall for R1,165bn. It's currently worth R3,75bn - a profit of R2,58bn within four years. In terms of return on cost, Canal Walk has no doubt been the deal of the decade.

Shareholders of Hyprop, one of the listed funds managed by Madison, are the main beneficiaries of Canal Walk's spectacular growth story. Hyprop owns 80% of the centre, with the Ellerine brothers holding a 20% stake.

At the time Wainer and Cesman were bidding against three other suitors for Canal Walk, including Liberty Life, Old Mutual and a Grayprop/Sycom consortium. Cesman says their price wasn't initially the highest. But it was the most attractive, as it was the only clean offer on the table with no conditions attached. And that's what Nedbank clearly wanted back then, says Cesman.
As soon as they took ownership of the centre in October 2003, Wainer and Cesman changed the management team, drastically cut back on expenses, tweaked the tenant mix and let the vacant space. Initially, 12% of the centre's total 130 000sq m was empty. Vacancies are now down to less than 1%.

Says Cesman: "There was no rocket science involved. We applied the basics. Nedbank didn't have experience in property management and we knew that the centre offered turnaround potential."

However, both Wainer and Cesman concede they had luck on their side. Soon after Canal Walk was acquired, SA's economy turned and consumers started their spending spree in earnest.

Says Cesman: "It's easy to look clever afterwards, but at the time there was a fair amount of risk involved, as the bulk of the leases were coming up for renewal in 2005. If retail spending turned against us - which was a possibility at the time - we wouldn't have been able to pass increases on to tenants."

However, by 2005 sales turnover was rocketing and Wainer and Cesman managed to get the rental increases they were hoping for. "We also can't take credit for the brilliant design and layout of Canal Walk," says Cesman. "It's magnificently built. We need to spend very little on refurbishing the centre over the next 20 years."

Key question is how long will Hyprop hang on to the mall? With so many offshore asset chasers sniffing around, you'd assume that cash-flush overseas buyers are prepared to pay a hefty premium for a landmark property such as Canal Walk. "That may be so - but we're not selling,'' says Cesman.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1296/1377510781_89277ad7a8_o.jpg

Distance from CBD

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R150m Cape Town office complex embraces high-end motor dealership
By: Leandi Rostoll
Published: 5 Oct 07 - 0:00
Cape Town’s Century City is soon to get a new R150-million motor dealership franchise, a showroom and office development.



The building development consists of a BMW dealership franchise that will be situated on the ground floor, alongside a double- volume showroom, four storeys of office space, and undercover parking.



The new building will be constructed on a site close to the public transport interchange and the Ratanga road entrance to Century City. The BMW motor dealership franchise will comprise 8 000 m2, and 4 500 m2 will be office space.



Justin Divaris and Sean McCarthy, owners of the new BMW franchise, are at the forefront of the development, alongside Rabie Property Group.



Divaris is a majority shareholder of Hyde Park Auto, in Sandton, as well as of the Johannesburg- and Cape Town-based Aston Martin dealerships. McCarthy is the majority shareholder of SMG BMW in Durban and Pietermaritzburg.



Rabie Property Group project manager Colin Anderson says, “The project plan has now been submitted to council, after having been in the design and development stage for a year.”



Boogertman & Partners architect and designer of the project Stephen Whitehead says that the compnay hopes to start building early next year. “Earthworks will most probably commence early 2008, with the building expected to be completed in 2009. The BMW premises are expected to open by the end of 2008, with the offices coming on stream by 2009.”

http://www.centurycity.co.za/images/precinctmap1.jpg

Awesome interactive map of the entire site.

http://www.centurycity.co.za/page.asp?Id=74

FNB Premier Banking moves to Century City

10/20/2007 2:21:00 AM ET
EProp.co.za

IntroFNB Premier Banking has joined the throng of top level corporate relocations to Century City

The group has moved into a new 815 metre square head office building in The Estuaries, a 35 000 square metre high profile office park being developed on Century Boulevard, the main thoroughfare of Century City, opposite Liberty Life's new regional headquarters.

Vincent Osborne, regional manager of FNB Premier Banking Western Cape, said they had relocated all five FNB Premier Banking teams from various locations in the Western Cape - the CBD, Somerset West, Montague Gardens, Kenilworth and Tygerberg - to the new regional office. "In so doing we are creating a robust, centralized team housed within the heart of Cape Town's Century City that will continue to service our client base using the benefits of synergy, scale and technology." Osborne said FNB Premier Banking's decision to relocate was based on the rationale that Century City was the growth node within the greater Cape Town area and its central positioning would enable them to service 80% of their clients within a 20km radius.

FNB Premier Banking, he said, concentrated its services on the top end of the salaried client base. "Many of our existing clients are employed within the greater Century City development and we are planning to both retain existing clients and aggressively grow market share using the new premises as our Cape Town suite which will house both sales and service specialists," he said. Osborne said the centralising of five teams into one would allow for more efficient management and quality output ensuring "a just do it" service offering to clients.

The lease on the building, which is held by an investor, was negotiated by Andrew Kendall of RMB Properties.

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Liberty Life Group’s new regional head office in Century City, Cape Town, represents the growth potential of the Western Cape’s financial services market and signposts the life assurer’s future strategy nationwide.

The four-storey office with ample parking will be opened today (October 16) by Liberty Life CEO, Bruce Hemphill who said the opening coincided with a new era in financial service delivery for the people of the Western Cape.

Hemphill added: “Liberty Life is not only committed to Cape Town, we are also committed to a new way of doing business; here and across the country. We offer integrated financial solutions that are appropriate to the lifestyles and life cycles of a dynamic population.

“Our new office brings together seven different operations that were previously located in different premises across Cape Town. Today, they are integrated at one location; a single point of access to total financial solutions that respond to individual needs.

“The floor-plan gives us plenty of space to grow and enhance our service offering as other Group contributors add critical mass to our overall marketing promise of life-enhancing interventions on behalf of our clients.”

High-tech resources support streamlined service to the life assurer’s growing Cape Town client-base.

The environmentally-friendly structure is the biggest commercial building in the Century City complex and is Liberty Life’s largest single investment in new office infrastructure over the last few years.

“The scale of the capital commitment reflects our belief in Cape Town’s status as one of South Africa’s principal financial centres and a major hub of corporate development,” said Hemphill.

With a fast-growing population – now nearing five million – and a strong position in growth industries such as leisure and tourism, the Western Cape represents a significant area of opportunity for Liberty Life and other players in the financial services market.

Hemphill pointed out: “Economic growth in Cape Town, and other areas of our country, is creating a new market for financial services. We see upward social mobility on an unprecedented scale.

“Studies by the University of Cape Town’s Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing show that our black middle class has grown by a phenomenal 30% to 2.6 million in less than two years. Personal wealth is accumulating yet South Africa’s rate of domestic saving is in free-fall.

“Upwardly progressive families have future focus and see education as a key driver of upward mobility. Yet how many families invest for the future and save in a structured way for their children’s education?

“A savings culture is absolutely vital to the future of our country. Companies such as Liberty Life have a duty to contribute to that process through innovative products and appropriate investments – in people and in infrastructure. Part of that investment is visible here at Century City.”

The Liberty Life building has total lettable area of 17 000m². The life company occupies 9935m². The remaining area will be taken by sub-tenants, including STANLIB, the country’s largest unit trust provider.

The regional office stands on a 19 000m² site overlooking the Intaka Island wetlands conservation area and canal.

Construction work began in October 2005 and was completed in July 2007. Three hundred Liberty Life staff members took occupation of the building at the end of July. Facilities include a medical suite, canteen, training and meeting rooms, executive boardrooms, dining rooms and pause areas. There are 440 covered and 156 open parking bays.

The offices accommodate marketing, distribution and customer service staff and the human resources and training departments.

Among the building’s environmentally friendly features is an intelligent lighting system that employs sensors and infrared and lens technology for optimum control of illumination. The system detects movement and monitors the number of people in any given area, ensuring that rooms are not lit unless they are being used. After working hours, over weekends and during holidays, the lights are off.

This smart installation reflects Liberty Life’s commitment to energy conservation and sustainable business practice.

Liberty Life is a signatory of the Energy Efficiency Accord, the initiative developed by the Department of Minerals and Energy to promote energy saving and help South Africa meet the national target of a 12% reduction in energy usage.

The building was developed by group subsidiary Liberty Properties, whose R14 billion property portfolio includes some of South Africa’s landmark retail developments, including Sandton City, Nelson Mandela Square and Eastgate. The R300 million Liberty Promenade shopping centre in Mitchell’s Plain was added to the portfolio in 2004. The total gross leasable area of the 67 portfolio properties is in excess of 1.5 million square meters. The portfolio includes seven hotels managed on Liberty’s behalf by Southern Sun.

With all this growth at Century City, isn't it about time that the train station (on the Monte Vista line close to Century City) be upgraded and more formally integrated into the development?

yes and that is happening..the plans are being drawn up as we speak

yes and that is happening..the plans are being drawn up as we speak

That is indeed good news ;) Thanks.

Now we just need a tram to connect the station to the Waterfront...

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I used to Mix Canal Walk and Century City, I used to think that the Mall is Century City. Damn!

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I got an offer for a place in Bougain Villa, you guys any info or pics on this place???

I got an offer for a place in Bougain Villa, you guys any info or pics on this place???

i got an offer too..thats weird. did u have the option to either rent or buy?

Buy, R1,2 million 2 & half bedroom.

Oasis village a hot seller


Several residents have taken occupation at the Oasis Luxury Retirement Village in Century City and the recently opened lifestyle centre, the Oasis Club, has added the finishing touches to a relaxing yet cosmopolitan way of life.

Pam Golding Properties, which is marketing the sectional title units in the Oasis's two apartment buildings, re-ports that owners are making full use of the facilities.

The Oasis Club, which was opened by Cape Town mayor Helen Zille in October, offers a wide range of facilities, from a big-screen TV lounge and dedicated rooms for bridge, hobbies and billiards to a library, a restaurant and a ladies' bar.

Further restaurant facilities as well as a dedicated health clinic for residents are also provided in the Oasis Care Centre, which offers 78 assisted living suites and 30 frail-care beds.

Only 12 of the 88 sectional title apartments are still available at Palm Springs. These range from a 93m2 one-bedroomed apartment priced at R1.35 million to a 210m2 three-bedroomed unit at R3.96m. The Palm Grove building, which was launched more recently, is already 50% sold out, with a mixture of one-, two- and three-bedroomed apartments still available from R1.53m to R4.4m.

Published on the web by Cape Argus on December 8, 2007. © Cape Argus 2007. All rights reserved.

still nothing on that bougain villa place Mo?

I love this place!!! looks like Val d'Europe village in Paris

still nothing on that bougain villa place Mo?

Well I think it was recently completed, my uncle owns an apartment and will rent it out for a while. So that was my offer.

Went & saw the complex, its very nice compared to Century View & Villa Italia, but the place was sold when I got there :(

Century City Pics

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Canal Plaza ig gonna be a beuty, according to the website, http://www.harriesprojects.com/projects/, construction is supposed to have started march 2007. Is it under construction already DB.

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There is a site office there, but no cranes or pile machines.

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Growthpoint scoops up five prize office buildings in Century City’s The Estuaries Office Park

30 Jan 2008 - eProp - Growthpoint

Intro
The listed property fund has acquired five triple-A grade freestanding office buildings in The Estuaries Office Park, located in the prestigious mixed-use precinct of Century City in Cape Town

The low-rise buildings, which interface seamlessly with both the urban and natural environments, comprise a lettable area of 9,750m² and were acquired by Growthpoint for a collective R170 million from developers Gorrie and Findlay Property Developers and Master Builders.

The prime office buildings at The Estuaries will enhance Growthpoint’s portfolio of 420 quality properties country-wide. “Both the superior quality of the office park and its accessible location at Century City were key factors in acquiring these properties, which will contribute to increased rental income streams,” says Rudolf Pienaar, Growthpoint Properties Limited Divisional Director: Office Portfolio.

Providing a high standard of security, including access and egress control, and plentiful parking at a ratio of four bays per 100m² of offices, the five office buildings can accommodate tenants ranging from 500m2 to 3,500m2 with exclusive naming rights available for tenants occupying an entire building.

The Estuaries comprises 18 office buildings in total, conveniently situated with easy access from major highways in the growing node of Century City. The Estuaries will also benefit from the planned new transport interchange system at Century City in addition to the wide-spread amenities available in the thriving mixed-use precinct which incorporates both residential and retail facilities including the landmark Canal Walk Shopping Centre.

James Gorrie of Gorrie and Findlay explains that the company purchased the five vacant erven in The Estuaries from the Century City Developers Rabie Properties. “Shortly after completion of the architectural drawings we were approached by Growthoint to purchase all five buildings off plan - certainly a welcome experience for any property developer,” says Gorrie

Gorrie reports that the first building will be completed by the end of this month (January 2008) and the remaining buildings will be completed over the period from February to May 2008. All are being built to A-grade specifications with finishes of the highest quality.

“One of the greatest benefits of having five adjacent buildings in this premier location is that they can be linked or combined to produce larger lettings and flexibility of space,” notes Gorrie.

Growthpoint Properties Limited is a hands-on property owner which undertakes the asset management and property management of its premium portfolio of buildings located throughout South Africa and spanning over 4,200,000m2. Some 38% of Growthpoint’s portfolio comprises office space occupied by blue-chip corporate tenants.

Growthpoint is also currently investing in a variety of Western Cape properties. This includes the R500-million redevelopment of MontClare Place – which houses Claremont Pick ‘n Pay on the corner of Campground and Main Roads at the gateway to the busy business district - as one of the most prestigious and largest mixed-use property developments in Cape Town's southern suburbs.

______________________________________________________

Info on Century City

Century City is a 250ha city in the making, located midway between the Cape Town and Bellville CBDs. Total development at Century City since 1995 has topped R6-billion with more than 260,000m2 of office space built or committed to date of which 175,000m2 has been built with the remainder to come on stream between now and the end of 2009. Century City has become an important office node in the Western Cape having attracted new regional offices for a growing list of blue-chip companies such as Vodacom, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Nashua, SAP SA, Comparex, The Louis Group, Business Connexion and Unisys to mention a few. This burgeoning city also offers excellent retail facilities and a wide variety of residential options. More than 2,000 homes have currently been created and by 2010 it is estimated there will be more than 60,000 people living and working in Century City. Already there are 35,000 people living and working in this vibrant city.

Manhattan
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I spent some time at Century City last week and must say I love it. I know it is not everyones cup of tea however considering that this site was a wasteland just a few years ago, it certainly has taken shape nicely, especially with the introduction of the canal systems running in between the buildings.

RAW offices

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R150m Cape Town office complex embraces high-end motor dealership

Cape Town’s Century City is soon to get a new R150-million motor dealership franchise, a showroom and office development.



The building development consists of a BMW dealership franchise that will be situated on the ground floor, alongside a double- volume showroom, four storeys of office space, and undercover parking.



The new building will be constructed on a site close to the public transport interchange and the Ratanga road entrance to Century City. The BMW motor dealership franchise will comprise 8 000 m2, and 4 500 m2 will be office space.



Justin Divaris and Sean McCarthy, owners of the new BMW franchise, are at the forefront of the development, alongside Rabie Property Group.



Divaris is a majority shareholder of Hyde Park Auto, in Sandton, as well as of the Johannesburg- and Cape Town-based Aston Martin dealerships. McCarthy is the majority shareholder of SMG BMW in Durban and Pietermaritzburg.



Rabie Property Group project manager Colin Anderson says, “The project plan has now been submitted to council, after having been in the design and development stage for a year.”



Boogertman & Partners architect and designer of the project Stephen Whitehead says that the compnay hopes to start building early next year. “Earthworks will most probably commence early 2008, with the building expected to be completed in 2009. The BMW premises are expected to open by the end of 2008, with the offices coming on stream by 2009.”

Plans for Canal Plaza unveiled

New Century City offices coming
Harries Projects and Gutsche Investment & Management Company have unveiled their plans for the construction of Canal Plaza, a new office building at Century City.

Set on a prime site at the water's edge and overlooking Intaka Island and the wetlands, the nine-storey building will provide approximately 12 000m2 of prime office accommodation with views of Table Mountain. There will be 450 parking bays.

Harries and Gutsche have developed a number of Century City projects, such as the Island Club, Oasis Luxury Lifestyle Resort, Heron Place, Century Square and Boulevard Place (Harries) and Boulevard Place and Waterford House (Gutsche).

Canal Plaza will have three façades in aluminium, glass and tile, with each façade responding to and interacting with its micro-environment in the best possible way, says Marc Cohen of Harries Projects.

Features include balconies that provide shade and protection from the sun, glass curtain walls, to optimise the panoram-ic views, and a tiled podium linking the building to the natural surrounds.

"Canal Plaza takes its lead from the environmentally sensitive area in which it is situated with terraced lawns leading down to the edge of the canal from the doors of the ground floor garden office suite, showcasing the use of natural light and ample greenery," he says.

Facilities include a 5:100 parking ratio based on net lettable area; a direct covered link between parking area and offices; concierge-style reception; high-speed lifts; port cochere "drop and go" at reception; a separate external protected smokers' area; 24-hour CCTV security cameras and manned security patrols; and landscaped gardens with water features.

The building has its own stand-by generator and is close to the Century City bus stops and E-bay parking facilities.

"Canal Plaza enjoys an im-portant competitive edge over a number of newly planned office buildings in Cape Town as the final building plans are approved and the necessary electrical power supply is available.

"Construction is due to commence around mid-year, with a tenant fit-out period by November 2009 and lease commencement in January 2010."

For information contact Viv Gutsche on 083 629 0940 or Owen Futeran on 083 675 5886.

Published on the web by Cape Argus on May 10, 2008.

Huge R700m project for Century City
24 May, 2008
Cape Argus

A development including a 180-room five-star hotel, boutique restaurants and shops, 90 luxury apartments and 7 000m2 of offices is being developed on a canal-fronting site at Century City by the Rabie Property Group.

This place is so tacky. It sounds more like our own little Dubai. Luxury this, luxury that, while the fucking city is burning! I dislike it ever more

it is what it is. but its the fastest growing business and residential area in cape town. before 2000 it was just empty land. how is the city burning??? yes township areas are seeing looting and hooliganism...not to disrespect those affected but everybody else is doing just fine. even cape flats areas are fine. isolated incidents in townships fortunately and unfortunately have very little impact on the rest of the city which is functioning as it always does.

absolute rubbish.

What exactly is wrong with Century City being luxury-oriented? If there's a market, it should be filled. People clearly want luxury, so I don't see why they shouldn't get it - tacky or not.

i hope my previous statement didnt come across as "if it doesnt affect me why should i care" but to say the city is burning down is ridiculous if not laughable.

Well to imply in any way that Cape Town is burning is just wrong. The city has never been so properous in its History. Just wish the townships directed their anger at the gangsters not the foreigners. Would have loved to see them burn in hell

....Yes, Cape Town is BURNING HOT with construction everywhere!.......the city is very clean and very, very safe.......i never feel threatened at all....

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......and Century City is what it is.....its huge, its awkward, and some of us love it.......i maybe wrong, but judging by the land that is still empty, i bet they have only built less than 50% of the total.....imagine 5 years when 75% of the land it built.......

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......and Century City is what it is.....its huge, its awkward, and some of us love it.......i maybe wrong, but judging by the land that is still empty, i bet they have only built less than 50% of the total.....imagine 5 years when 75% of the land it built.......



awesome. thanks a lot!

you now have to head to the CBD for a picture tour!! or else!

Awesome pictures! Agreed with the above post ;)

......still plenty of land, and many more projects going up.......

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Liberty Life Building HQ

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Ok Im going to attempt to sort out developments here by grouping image links under the title/name of the development.

.....sorry, i've shot same thing over and over hoping to get the best shot......got a few more Century City to go...hang there.....

The system works as follows. If more recent images appear add them to the links already there with the name of the development. Or send the links to me and I'll add them. This list still has many projects that need to be added.


Century City Developments



- Liberty Life HQ

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- Vodacom

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-Price Waterhouse Cooper

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-Estuary Suites

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http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5180188.jpg

BMW Showroom

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5180175.jpg

Central Park

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5180172.jpg
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5180171.jpg
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5180167.jpg
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5170161.jpg

Virgin Active Club

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5180176.jpg

Waterview Park

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g160/amgosai/holiday07/DSC06860Large.jpg
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5180184.jpg
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5180186.jpg

Colosseum

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g160/amgosai/holiday07/DSC05831Large.jpg

Manhattan

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2031/2255208754_86da238969_b.jpg
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5180163.jpg
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5170160.jpg
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5180169.jpg
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5180170.jpg


Knightsbridge

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5180162.jpg
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5180168.jpg

Unknown

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5180164.jpg
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5180165.jpg

.....sorry, i've shot same thing over and over hoping to get the best shot......got a few more Century City to go...hang there.....

try your best to sort them out according to the list above. then add the links and i can update the main list of links.

R250 million extension for Canal Walk!!!

27 May 2008 - eProp - Canal Walk

Intro
Six stand-alone retail ‘pods’, totalling 16,000m2 of additional retail offering are being developed at Canal Walk Shopping Centre for an investment of R250 million

The development is being undertaken by Madison Property Fund Managers on behalf of Canal Walk’s owners Hyprop Investments Limited (80%) and Ellerine Bros (Pty) Ltd (20%).

“Conceptually exciting, these retail pods will complement Canal Walk and will accommodate leading retailers who wish to benefit from the mall, but due to their size and nature of business, are not ideally suited to trading inside a shopping centre,” says Canal Walk CEO Wayne Abegglen. The tenant mix is apraently still being finalised and will focus on 'lifestyle' tenants.

The new pods are fashioned to provide a satellite retail offering alongside the shopping centre. They will be placed in strategic positions along Century Boulevard which traverses Canal Walk and approximately 1,000 new parking bays also will developed.

A spokesperson points out that the pods are extremely high-spec, continuing both the quality of Canal Walk and linking into the existing building. The glazing ensures the high visibility of both the retailer and the view of the centre ‘through’ the pods, ensuring Canal Walk’s majesty is retained and thus continuing the long-term performance of Canal Walk as a premier quality retail property asset.

As such, the retail pods are being developed at a market-related yield, despite the costs, as achievable rental income based on the high profile location of Canal Walk, is projected to support the scheme. The costs include the extension of the parking decks and the land costs.

“The decision to extend the scope of retail at Canal Walk is underpinned by a growth in both retailer and customer demand. The additional retail element will ensure that Canal Walk continues to offer the most comprehensive shopping experience in Southern Africa,” says Canal Walk CEO, Wayne Abegglen.

The glass pods will each comprise of two storeys, forming ‘glazed lanterns’ which accentuate the centre’s entrances and major architectural features.

Glass has been selected as one of the core materials for these pods to effectively showcase both the retailer and the shopping centre itself as a background, creating a dynamic and constantly-changing appearance.

“Canal Walk Shopping Centre’s superlative position in the burgeoning node of Century City has contributed considerably to the continued growth in the centre’s visitors and turnover. Its central location in Cape Town has also won it a constantly growing popularity with retailers and we believe the retail pods will now allow quality retailers access to our centre,” notes Abegglen.

The development is expected to be complete by mid 2009.

*orgasms* finally! The glass pods sound awesome! :D My mom says she can see they're busy removing parts of the parking lot, most likely for this.

R700m five-star hotel, apartment and office project for Century City

02 Jun 2008 - eProp - Rabie

Intro
A mega development including a 180 room five star hotel, associated boutique restaurants and retailing, 90 luxury apartments and 7000 square metres of offices is being developed on a prime canal fronting site at Century City by the Rabie Property Group

To be built at a cost of more than R700m, Crystal Towers is the largest development to be undertaken at Century City since the Canal Walk shopping centre which was completed in 2000.

The iconic development to be built on a landmark site on the Grand Canal across the water from Canal Walk shopping centre also enjoys frontage onto Century Boulevard, the main thoroughfare of Century City.

The hotel will form part of Protea Hotel’s exclusive African Pride collection of superior deluxe 5 star hotels offering the highest international standards of service, luxury accommodation and superior facilities. The largest South African luxury 5-star brand. African Pride was chosen for its enormously progressive design and positioning reaped from its experience with luxury hotels, lodges and country houses which include Melrose Arch Hotel in Johannesburg; Mount Grace Country House & Spa in the Magaliesburg; Pumba Private Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape; Fairlawns Boutique Hotel & Spa in Sandton; Rosenhof Country House in Oudtshoorn and Tinga Private Game Lodge in the Kruger National Park.

The entire Crystal Towers development, which will include two tower blocks and a standalone office block, will be set over a two level podium comprising parking and canal fronting hotel banqueting facilities flowing out over the water.

The rest of the hotel will be housed in one of the nine storey towers offering spectacular sea and mountain views from the upper storeys.

Aimed primarily at the high end, short stay business traveller, the hotel will provide extensive conference and meeting rooms, a state-of-the-art business centre, fine dining restaurants, swimming pools, a gym and a health spa.

A shopping mall offering boutique ancillary retailing with restaurants spilling out into the walkway will run through the spine of the development linking into the apartment, office and hotel components.

The second tower will include 2000 square metres of offices over two levels and seven storeys of luxury apartments ranging from studio to two bedroom penthouses. To be sold on a sectional title basis, the apartments are aimed at owner occupiers and longer stay business travellers with owners being able to opt to have their apartments serviced by the hotel.

The development, which is being financed by Nedbank, will form a focal point of Century City providing a pedestrian conduit and linking neighbouring office developments such as the Colosseum and The Forum to Canal Walk Shopping Centre and the new Virgin Active health club currently also under construction across Century Boulevard.

A pedestrian bridge will link the development to the Canal Walk side of the Grand Canal.

A further 5000 square metres of offices will be provided in a standalone building on the site.

Greg Deans, a director of Rabie Property Group, said they were currently negotiating with purchasers for both the office building and hotel.

The apartments, however, would be sold to individual investors on a sectional title basis.

Construction of the development has started with the hotel scheduled for completion in November 2009 in time for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The apartment tower and office block, he said, were scheduled for completion in phases from February/March 2010.

Architect Paolo Viotti of Vivid Architects said the site bounded by the Grand Canal to its East and Century Boulevard to its South, was particularly strategic within the Century City context as it would play a critical role in allowing for a successful interface between all future new developments across Century Boulevard.

“The Century City urban planning concepts have always embraced and consolidated pedestrian connectivity and for this reason, the building needs to be a catalyst for this pedestrian flow.”

To this end, he said, the high volume internal street would not only form a future bridge and retail link to Canal walk shopping centre but would also allow the architectural form of the building to express itself in two similar yet distinct towers that would accommodate the hotel on one side and the apartments to the other.

He said the architecture needed to respond equally to night time and daytime activities and usage.

“Crystal Towers has been designed with extensive glazing to not only optimise the panoramic views of Table Bay and Table Mountain but also help to animate the facades at night with a creative balance of warm artificial and coloured LED lighting.”

Viotti said the name Crystal Towers aptly reflected the concept of a building that emanates a constant life, energy and glow.

“Its transparency, warmth and openness is intended to invite and welcome the Century City visitor, office workers and residents to enjoy the whole precinct and its exciting restaurant offerings. The architectural design is of a highly contemporary nature that will also assist in interfacing and redefining a new architectural vision and style of future developments in adjacent precincts.”

a whole 9 storeys..yay. :(

Yeah, Cape Town is not famed for their courage for height. It is a bit disappointing. They could have at least gone as high as Knightsbridge!

R700m five-star hotel, apartment and office project for Century City

The iconic development to be built on a landmark site on the Grand Canal across the water from Canal Walk shopping centre also enjoys frontage onto Century Boulevard, the main thoroughfare of Century City.

The entire Crystal Towers development, which will include two tower blocks and a standalone office block, will be set over a two level podium comprising parking and canal fronting hotel banqueting facilities flowing out over the water.

.”

....exit the mall near Brazas restaurant.....look to the right......Manhattan is sticking out......

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5210689.jpg

.........now look to the left behind Collosium.....Crystal Towers is rising people.....
BTW....look slightly at Stay Easy.....they are extending this one too.....

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x31/Upington/May08/P5210690.jpg

Stunning

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3182/2630756812_51f9aa7d8e_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3114/2775375315_55ee4b1e51_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3127/2776229294_9493a3b453_b.jpg

as a developer, I was very impressed with CC, Reminds me of gateway and the Rifge in Durbs as its well planned and well maintained. Imagine if the airport next door could be redeveloped, it would create a mini city from the CBD all the way to the end of CC.

I was also thinking about getting that Aiport into gear, prob for the private jet owners.

This place is looking good, no pictures on the net from the bridge of Knightsbridge.

Well the idea of a private airport sort of crashed and burned when the new private airport got the go ahead at CTIA. I really would like to know though whether ysterplaat really needs to be held onto. Connecting it to wingfield, century city and surrounding areas could allow for some major developments.

I love Canal Walk. They're developing the place like crazy.

What was using the land before the started building Century City? If vacant, how could so much land be vacant (relatively) close to central Capetown, the freeway, the coast?

What was using the land before the started building Century City? If vacant, how could so much land be vacant (relatively) close to central Capetown, the freeway, the coast?

If I'm correct, it was all mash land.

^^ Yes, it was indeed MASH land, with many HEONS, STOCKS, EGETS and SACED IBSES... :lol: :lol: :lol: JK!!!

If I'm correct, it was all mash land.

Twas marsh land ;)

^^ Yes, it was indeed MASH land, with many HEONS, STOCKS, EGETS and SACED IBSES... :lol: :lol: :lol: JK!!!

Ja, ja, ...marsh potatoes :tongue3:

Why didn't I just say wetlands?

Canal Walk was completed in 2000 and since then it just been busy busy. funny how they doubted its potential like they did with the cticc, like they did with the V&A, like they did with grand west and like they do with the new stadium

Canal Walk was completed in 2000 and since then it just been busy busy. funny how they doubted its potential like they did with the cticc, like they did with the V&A, like they did with grand west and like they do with the new stadium

This is so true.
I remember Mugg & Bean was pumping before the centre even opened. They were serving the staff while they were setting up their shops. I was with CNA back then, but unfortunately that huge store we originally moved into was a bit too ambitious.

Do you guys remember the indoor fountain that was opposite the food court?

The good old fountain. It's a pity in a way that they removed it but I guess it was needed, as it's much easier to host events now.

Around 35 000 live and work in CC the last time I checked.

Is century city a copy of centurion? I mean, the similarities just overwealm me... Both are focused around bodies of water, Built mostly around large mall, construction boom, architecture, etc etc.

But centurion just isnt getting the tall glass ones:cry:
BTW, how many people live in Century city?

OK that was strange...my reply was posted before your post? Anyway, look up haha.

Oh, haha thx.
In centurion you just add a '0'

350000!!!
:dance::dance:

^^ Well Centurion has been a suburb of Pretoria for decades, that waterfront development was just Centurion developing an underutilised parcel of land within an already existing suburb, well then Verwoerdburg.

Century City did not exist pre-1998, and had only a (Ratanga) theme park up until 2000 when Canal Walk opened. Only in the last 7 1/2 years has Century City actually grown into a suburb of Cape Town in it's own right and the Cape's 2nd largest commercial node...

Think that is pretty impressive!!! :)

Oh, haha thx.
In centurion you just add a '0'

350000!!!
:dance::dance:

As mentioned earlier, Centurion has been in existence far longer than Century City has, which only now is starting to explode with developments.

Okay, but centurion is NOT a suburb, its a large town/city in its own right:bash:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centurion,_Gauteng:cheers:

Well you're the one who mentioned the similarities, lol..

lol, yeah, but its worlds apart in size. Centurion is at least 10times larger.
Do you know what would be nice? if they redevelope the lake area around centurion. There is so much investment potential...

Well maybe you should start a Centurion thread or something? .. because this is getting a little off topic.

Okay, srry.
Century city is really cool. It should become an independent city i think. Needs a signature tower to round it off:dunno:

:banana::banana:

Will never happen. It's right slap bang in the middle of Cape Town basically. 10km from the CBD too...

Oh, but if it was divided by a natural barier? Mountain or lake/lagoon.

looks like wall disney... >_< ...it's strange, but not ugly...

Century City and the DuToitskloof Mountains behind from Signal Hill...
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc40/andresannman/CenturyCity.jpg

Nice pic. But these zoomed in pics are so deceptive. Everything looks a lot more closer than it really is.

^^ Everything i cape town is rediculously close but we just dont have ood public transport so 2 much traffic

http://www.eprop.co.za/images/logos/eproplogo.jpg

Century City on route to becoming second largest office node in Cape

15 Oct 2008 - eProp - RPG

Intro
The Century City office market, which has almost tripled in size tol more than 200 000 square metres in the past four years, is now the fourth largest office node in the Western Cape

Within a year it will move into third position as further new development comes on stream - and with development rights for a total of 600 000 square metres of offices - when fully developed it will be second only in size to the Cape Town CBD which has a total of 750 000 square metres of offices

Over the next six to 12 months an additional 20 000 square metres of offices will come to the market on a phased basis with more than half of this new space already spoken for in terms of owner occupiers or tenants.

Based on the historical take up of space at Century City in recent years – over 105 000 square metres in the past four years of which 65 800 square metres was taken up in the past 14 months alone -- most of these developments are expected to come on stream after existing vacancies have been mopped up, says Greg Deans, a director of developers Rabie Property Group which acquired the remaining undeveloped land at Century City in 2004.

Deans said that 10 years after it was launched the Century City development had matured significantly and they were now seeing the emergence of a two tier market with tenants having a much broader choice of product at varying rentals.

“Previously all the available offices were much of a muchness in terms of quality and all largely owner occupied. The precinct was not perceived to be a rental node. Development in recent years has changed that and created a sustainable rental market with a diversity of product and rentals which are varying considerably from a low of around R90 per square metre to around R135 per square metre depending on the age, the quality and location of the building within Century City.”

Developments achieving premium rentals include Rabie’s Central Park office park development, which is a low rise office park set around a village green, and where rentals of R135 per square metre are being achieved. This development followed Rabie’s The Forum sectional title office development which was fully let at rentals of between R115 and R120 a square metre six months ago.

Deans said of the 206 000 square metres of offices already built, 26 000 square metres or 13% currently remains to be let.

“While this is currently higher than most other nodes in the Western Cape, it is not surprising given the fact that this is where the bulk of new development has been taking place in recent years as we are in a very enviable position of having our rights in place. Most of the current vacancies are in the 35 000 square metre The Estuaries office park, where we sold land to a variety of developers who have undertaken office developments, half of which have been on a speculative basis. These offices have come to the market at a time of economic uncertainty with many potential tenants adopting a wait and see attitude.”

Deans said since The Estuaries was launched in September 2006 Rabie had conscientiously intervened to prevent an oversupply of office space coming on the market and had been undertaking all new developments at Century City to their own account and only selling land to owner occupiers or other developers who had a committed tenant in place.

“As such the bulk of speculative development has already been built and it is only a matter of time before these vacancies are mopped up,” he said.

He points out that the annual take-up of office space at Century City had grown exponentially. “This was a function of not only the upturn in the commercial property market but also Century City’s growing popularity as a commercial destination.”

“ The take up for the 12 months to June 2005 was a mere 8000 square metres, rising to 13 000 square metres in the following 12 months and 18 400 square metres in the year to end June 2006. Since then an astounding 65 800 square metres of space has been taken up,” he said.

Deans said there was no doubt Century City had achieved critical mass and had established itself as a premier office destination in the Western Cape attracting a growing number of blue chip corporate as well as smaller to medium size companies with an estimated 20 000 office workers currently based there.

“Owners and tenants are attracted to our modern, energy efficient city which has exceptional standards of infrastructure, security, maintenance and cleanliness. In addition, in terms of our planning principles all offices have generous parking ratios with tenants also able to access affordable additional parking at our park and ride facility – e-parking where one can rent a secure parking bay at Century City for just R199 per month. This also includes a free shuttle bus service to and from your place of work.”

http://www.eprop.co.za/images/logos/eproplogo.jpg

Century City on route to becoming second largest office node in Cape

15 Oct 2008 - eProp - RPG

Intro
The Century City office market, which has almost tripled in size tol more than 200 000 square metres in the past four years, is now the fourth largest office node in the Western Cape

Within a year it will move into third position as further new development comes on stream - and with development rights for a total of 600 000 square metres of offices - when fully developed it will be second only in size to the Cape Town CBD which has a total of 750 000 square metres of offices

Over the next six to 12 months an additional 20 000 square metres of offices will come to the market on a phased basis with more than half of this new space already spoken for in terms of owner occupiers or tenants.

Based on the historical take up of space at Century City in recent years – over 105 000 square metres in the past four years of which 65 800 square metres was taken up in the past 14 months alone -- most of these developments are expected to come on stream after existing vacancies have been mopped up, says Greg Deans, a director of developers Rabie Property Group which acquired the remaining undeveloped land at Century City in 2004.

Deans said that 10 years after it was launched the Century City development had matured significantly and they were now seeing the emergence of a two tier market with tenants having a much broader choice of product at varying rentals.

“Previously all the available offices were much of a muchness in terms of quality and all largely owner occupied. The precinct was not perceived to be a rental node. Development in recent years has changed that and created a sustainable rental market with a diversity of product and rentals which are varying considerably from a low of around R90 per square metre to around R135 per square metre depending on the age, the quality and location of the building within Century City.”

Developments achieving premium rentals include Rabie’s Central Park office park development, which is a low rise office park set around a village green, and where rentals of R135 per square metre are being achieved. This development followed Rabie’s The Forum sectional title office development which was fully let at rentals of between R115 and R120 a square metre six months ago.

Deans said of the 206 000 square metres of offices already built, 26 000 square metres or 13% currently remains to be let.

“While this is currently higher than most other nodes in the Western Cape, it is not surprising given the fact that this is where the bulk of new development has been taking place in recent years as we are in a very enviable position of having our rights in place. Most of the current vacancies are in the 35 000 square metre The Estuaries office park, where we sold land to a variety of developers who have undertaken office developments, half of which have been on a speculative basis. These offices have come to the market at a time of economic uncertainty with many potential tenants adopting a wait and see attitude.”

Deans said since The Estuaries was launched in September 2006 Rabie had conscientiously intervened to prevent an oversupply of office space coming on the market and had been undertaking all new developments at Century City to their own account and only selling land to owner occupiers or other developers who had a committed tenant in place.

“As such the bulk of speculative development has already been built and it is only a matter of time before these vacancies are mopped up,” he said.

He points out that the annual take-up of office space at Century City had grown exponentially. “This was a function of not only the upturn in the commercial property market but also Century City’s growing popularity as a commercial destination.”

“ The take up for the 12 months to June 2005 was a mere 8000 square metres, rising to 13 000 square metres in the following 12 months and 18 400 square metres in the year to end June 2006. Since then an astounding 65 800 square metres of space has been taken up,” he said.

Deans said there was no doubt Century City had achieved critical mass and had established itself as a premier office destination in the Western Cape attracting a growing number of blue chip corporate as well as smaller to medium size companies with an estimated 20 000 office workers currently based there.

“Owners and tenants are attracted to our modern, energy efficient city which has exceptional standards of infrastructure, security, maintenance and cleanliness. In addition, in terms of our planning principles all offices have generous parking ratios with tenants also able to access affordable additional parking at our park and ride facility – e-parking where one can rent a secure parking bay at Century City for just R199 per month. This also includes a free shuttle bus service to and from your place of work.”
awesome.

but i want more high-ish-ish rise building.

http://www.cbn.co.za/press/sites/rabie/images/logo.jpg


13 Tower Cranes on Century City Skyline

5th September 2008

With new development totaling in excess of R2bn currently under way, Century City again resembles a crane city with no less than 13 tower cranes and a number of mobile cranes dotting the skyline. Other than the new World Cup stadium in Green Point this is the greatest concentration of cranes in the Western Cape.

Greg Deans, a director of Rabie Property Group, the developers of Century City, said that the level of activity was a clear barometer of the confidence the market has in the future of the Western Cape generally, and in Century City in particular.

“There is no doubt Century City has rapidly become a premier commercial and residential precinct attracting a growing list of blue chip corporates and medium and smaller companies. It is a real success story and people are attracted to success which has created an unstoppable momentum with many major players in the property and investment sectors increasing their exposure here.”

Projects underway include the R700m Crystal Towers development, the largest single project undertaken at Century City since the Canal Walk Shopping Centre and which comprises a luxury five star hotel and amenities, luxury apartments and offices. Being constructed by Murray & Roberts, this mega high rise, high density development currently has three tower cranes and a work force of over 220 beavering away to ensure completion ahead of the 2010 World Cup. The work force is expected to peak at well over 500.

Other projects currently under construction and employing tower cranes include:

•The R250m extension of Canal Walk Shopping Centre to provide four standalone retail pods on Century City’s main thoroughfare, Century Boulevard. Main contractor, WBHO has four tower cranes and a current work force of 500 on site with this expected to peak at over 1000 ahead of completion in 2009.

• The Gateway, a prime new office block providing 4000 square metres of triple A-grade offices and double volume motor showroom for BMW being developed by the Rabie Property Group at a cost of R150m


•An extension to the StayEasy hotel to provide an additional 30 rooms at a cost of R35m.

•The R150m Manhattan luxury apartment and hotel Suite development, also being developed by the Rabie Property Group, and which is nearing completion on a canal fronting site.

•A new campus for Abbotts College a new Abbotts College which is due for completion by Granbuild by the start of the 2009 school year.

•Edison Square, a 3000 square metre office development under construction at Century Gate near the Bosmansdam entrance to Century City being developed at a cost of about R50m.

•Waterview Park 3 office block comprising about 2000 square metres of offices which is being built by JT Ross.

Further cranes will be rising shortly once construction gets underway on Canal Plaza, a 10 000 square metre office block being developed jointly by Harries Projects and Gutsche Investment and Management Company at a cost of about R250m.

Other projects being developed by the Rabie Property Group and now under construction but not currently employing tower cranes include a new R60m state-of-the art Virgin Active Gym nearing completion; Waterstone, a R400m residential development of apartments, townhouses and free standing homes and the R80m first phase of Central Park , an 18 000 square metre, R360m office park which is being built around a village green.

In addition the first 15 of 18 office blocks in the 35 000 square metre Estuaries office development are now nearing completion. Total development here to date has topped R500m.

Also recently completed is Madison Property Fund Managers’ R50m Knowledge Park 3 office block which comprises 3000 square metres of Triple A grade office space.

I think they should build a hospital at Century City.

Do Not know where we have the thread for the new BMW Dealership Building on the corner of Ratanga Rd and Century Blvd... anywhooo... Here's the update.

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc40/andresannman/CenCity1.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc40/andresannman/CenCity2.jpg

Canal Walk Expansion

Firstly, something is really pissing me off. Can someone please tell me why the projects pages only go up to page 3, thus, if there is little activity on a particular project for a while, you CAN'T access it!!?? :ohno: Then, the Project List thread sticky is outdated and doesn't have the newer project links! What the hell do I do to find older threads past page 3, so I can put these pics with the "Canal Walk Expansion thread"?

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc40/andresannman/CanalWalk1.jpg
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc40/andresannman/CanalWalk2.jpg

Firstly, something is really pissing me off. Can someone please tell me why the projects pages only go up to page 3, thus, if there is little activity on a particular project for a while, you CAN'T access it!!?? :ohno: Then, the Project List thread sticky is outdated and doesn't have the newer project links! What the hell do I do to find older threads past page 3, so I can put these pics with the "Canal Walk Expansion thread"?

Lmfao, I explain again :lol: :

Scroll down to the bottom of the page in the projects section. You'll see a bar titled "Display Options." In that bar you'll see a drop-down menu titled "From The." Click on the drop-down menu and select "Beginning" and then click on the "Mostrar Temas" button underneath.

That will display all the threads instead of those from the last month :)

^^ Merci!!! :)

Do Not know where we have the thread for the new BMW Dealership Building on the corner of Ratanga Rd and Century Blvd... anywhooo... Here's the update.

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc40/andresannman/CenCity1.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc40/andresannman/CenCity2.jpg

not bad at all.

Alaink and I decided to take a walk today :) (All photos were taken by my phone, which got really confused come Nightfall so excuse the quality of some of them)

Canal Walk:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008025.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008032.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008040.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008030.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008082.jpg

Canal Walk Expansion:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008058.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008059.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008061.jpg

Knightsbridge:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008033.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008037.jpg

Manhattan:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008034.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008035.jpg

Crystal Towers:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008042.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008052.jpg

BMW Dealership:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008045.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008046.jpg

The Colloseum:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008047.jpg

Virgin Active:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008049.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008051.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008053.jpg

StayEasy Hotel:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008054.jpg

Mercedes Benz Dealership:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008057.jpg

Other

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008026.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008027.jpg

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http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008041.jpg

(ewe)
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008044.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008063.jpg

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http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/SAsurfa/SSC/15112008071.jpg

nice pic's Lydon, That dealership came on Carte Blanch for all the wrong reasons last night! Guy sends his Jeep GC SRT8 in for a service and checks on tracker that while it was there the mechanic went for a joyride and was doing 217kph on Table Bay blvd!!!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3151/3064962377_09cab7d088_b.jpg

i've heard of a new 2010 media village that is being planned for Century City.
what are the chances, given the time constraints!!

^^ Who knows, I've learnt that with the City of Cape Town, expect the unexpected and expect things to "magically happen." :)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3175/3074402602_29d0588ba9_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3219/3077083062_08186624b8_b.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p210/rfataar/ccity.jpg

Century City goes Greener

Century City Property Owners’ Association (CCPOA), a section 21 company that is responsible for the day to day management of the burgeoning Century City precinct, has amended its rules and regulations to ensure all new buildings comply to green principles to reduce Century City’s carbon footprint and regulate a sustainable future.

Chris Blackshaw, CEO of the CCPOA, said the mixed use Century City, which combines residential, retail, office and leisure components in an integrated environment, was already a model in sustainable development as it had been developed along environmentally friendly criteria from day one. The amended rules and regulations governing new developments would further build on this.

“It is our intention to be a leader where ever possible in the pursuit of a sustainable future in terms of the conception, design, construction, use and management of buildings and localities.” *

He said “determinants” for this “green” future were being incorporated into the Century City Environment Management Policy and the regulations governing building development at Century City.

“This will include, among other things, the use of water and consumption of power, the use of alternative power recycling and environmental protection. *

“It may also include determinants for the design and erection of buildings such as low energy consumption limitations or the restriction in the use of some materials and construction techniques.”

Blackshaw said in terms of its Environmental Management Policy from 1 January 2009 all site development plans, building plans and signage drawings submitted to the CCPOA would have to report on what measures were being taken in the proposed development to support sustainability. *

“An audit of the actual sustainable costs and benefits for any project submitted for Site Development Plan and National Building Regulations approval will have to accompany the submission of the drawings. *These will be done in accordance with rules which will require the submission of summary drawings and text and calculations indicating the measures proposed. These will be assessed by the Century City Design Review Committee and administered by the CCPOA,” he said.

Blackshaw said that any company based at Century City that was seeking a four, five or six star rating from the Green Building Council of South Africa was at a distinct advantage due to the sustainable initiatives undertaken there n the past 10 years.

These include the fact that it is an integrated development with all amenities in easy walking distance from each other reducing the need for motorised transport; its central location and its two public transport interchanges and multimodal interface with taxi, rail, and soon to be Bus Rapid Transport System; its use of non-potable water for irrigation; its widespread waste recycling initiatives; its green lungs including a 16ha wetlands conservation area and its management of storm water to name just some.

“All this factors are taken into consideration and can score you passive points (ones that you do not have to create yourself – in your green star rating,” he said.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_HOPt_Y_PWtI/SUT3zEzBoPI/AAAAAAAAGMg/taAU5uauSKg/CapeTownFamilyDec08-39.jpg

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_geoi4deoHh8/SOlvkHTz6jI/AAAAAAAACRg/FICf_oMScok/007CRW_7157.jpg

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_HOPt_Y_PWtI/SVDFXHxlQ_I/AAAAAAAAGps/vbjl_RoBZsY/CapeTownFamilyDec08.14.jpg

The official website has finally been redesigned and updated. Check it out at www.centurycity.co.za

They have some nice photos up in the gallery. I just have one problem...why on earth did they choose such disgustingly ugly buses for the place? I mean camouflage doesn't exactly fit the theme at all. It's a pity they don't use horses anymore, though I can understand why. That doesn't, however, give them a right to use those buses!

It's called cost-cutting and settling for second-best. Something SA is good at.

But surely if they had to go for a colour they could have gone for pure black or white or something. Anything is better than that. The patrol cars even use the camouflage pattern. Nasty!

http://www.centurycity.co.za/images/work_1.jpg

http://www.centurycity.co.za/images/work_2.jpg

http://www.centurycity.co.za/images/DSCF2974.jpg

http://www.centurycity.co.za/images/shop_2.jpg

http://www.centurycity.co.za/images/stay1.jpg

http://www.centurycity.co.za/images/stay2.jpg

crystal towers make quite an impact alongside the gym and canal

18th February 2009

It is official, Century City is the best area to live in!

It is official, Century City is South Africa’s best middle class residential area to live in, according to a top level independent market research survey.

For the third year running Finweek partnered with market research company Ask Africa to help select and rank South Africa’s best suburbs or areas to live in with the survey results being published in the 15 January 2009 issue of Finweek.

The initial sample of 28 suburbs included 14 suburbs in each of two price categories - a middle class category where prices typically range from R700 000 to R2m and an upper end category where prices generally exceed R3m.

The suburbs chosen were those that had recorded the highest number of sales in a particular price category for the 12 months to October 2008.

The survey singled out 11 categories to measure the quality of life offered by each of these 28 suburbs throughout six of South Africa’s biggest cities namely Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein.

The 11 categories included safety and security, access to emergency and medical services, proximity to shopping centres, entertainment, tourism and leisure amenities; access to schools, universities and other places of learning as well as investment returns offered by properties in each area.

Century City, a 250ha mixed-use secured first place in the middle class component winning most of the 11 categories and scoring particularly high in recreation, retail and entertainment and for being in easy reach of many educational and medical facilities.

Centrally located on the N1 midway between the Cape Town and Bellville CBDs, Century City’s unique attractions include Canal Walk Shopping Centre (the largest in Africa), 8km of navigable canals that meander through the development and onto which many of the residential projects front, and Intaka Island, an award-winning nature conservation area. A state of the art Virgin Active gym, numerous hotels, convenience retailing and restaurants all add to the equation.

While the bulk of residential property sales in Century City have been for homes costing less than R2m, Century City offers a wide range of residential product ranging from luxury freestanding homes on the water to trendy highrise lock-up-and-go apartments as well as a retirement resort. Studio and one bedroom apartments cost between R750 000 and R1,7m depending on which development you wish to buy into, a two bedroom apartment or freestanding house will cost anywhere between R900 000 and R3,2m with three beds ranging from R995 000 to R5m.

Two other Cape Town suburbs were in the top three countrywide, namely Pinelands and Observatory.

The best upper income suburb to live in, according to the survey, is Westcliff in Johannesburg with Clifton in second place followed by Woodhill Country Estate in Pretoria.

Pictures taken this week from the N1...

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc40/andresannman/100_4883-1.jpg
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc40/andresannman/100_4884-1.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc40/andresannman/100_5259.jpg
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc40/andresannman/100_5303.jpg

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http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3297/3448462506_1c439674f9_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3125/3448487342_0083341180_b.jpg

I`m thinking of buying a place in Century City, can anyone comment on the mosquitoes in the area considering all the water canals and wetlands.... i cant stand mosquitoes

They wouldn't carry malaria.

I`m thinking of buying a place in Century City, can anyone comment on the mosquitoes in the area considering all the water canals and wetlands.... i cant stand mosquitoes

I wouldnt worry about mozies, spiders is the main issue. I had a house in Century View, with cleaning crew coming in every week, went there once and the amount of spiders in a room is scary!

Thanks, now i have to deal with spiders :ohno: maybe a flat in Knightsbrige... on the 8th floor!

Century City at only half its potential



Property Profile: Greg Deans
http://www.thepropertymag.co.za/images/452774491/ArticleImages/2009/February/WC-Profile-Greg-Deans.jpg
The energy at Rabie Property Group’s Century City development is electric. Like a growing organism whose cells constantly divide and multiply, the ever-expanding universe of this micro metropolis is alive with potential.
At its nucleus is Greg Deans, one of Rabie’s five directors, a man of indeterminate age and athletic demeanour.
Deans strides into the boardroom, rolls out a map and enthusiastically begins to pinpoint Century City’s most recent developments. He talks fast. He has to. With 250 hectares and over R18-billion worth of development, there’s a lot of ground to cover. Here is Crystal Towers, the new iconic R750-million development comprising a 180-room five-star hotel, restaurants, ancillary retailing, 90 luxury apartments and 7 500m2 of blue-chip office space; there’s the Colosseum, with its ground-breaking vertical integration of retailing, offices and hotel.
Around here is Phase Three of a current residential development (with allocated space and planning well advanced on three more residential projects, to be rolled out as and when market conditions warrant it). Here, alongside the landmark BMW Gateway pavilion, will be. The Gatehouse, a R50-million 3 000m2 sectional-title office block; and around here, on a site across the N1 from Century City at the Sable Road bridge – with a new road and pedestrian link being provided for Century City commuters – is where the R60-million train station, due for completion in time for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, will stand.
Balancing political agendas, environmental demands, price pressures, economic factors, residents’ needs and the interest of stakeholders is a job that requires not only a hard hat but also a thick skin. ‘It’s not for the faint-hearted,’ concedes Greg. So what sustains him? ‘The idea that people, not buildings, are the bricks and mortar of a development,’ he answers without hesitation. ‘The success of any model of New Urbanism depends on the formation of a tight-knit community.’
He points proudly to a newspaper clipping displayed on the boardroom wall announcing one of Century City’s residential developments, Bougain Villas, as the SA Property Owners Association’s Best Residential Development. Apart from outstanding infrastructure for transport and waste removal, high aesthetic standards for signage, zero tolerance for crime, and state-of-the-art security, the Century City homeowners’ association also runs an athletics club with outsourced events management, including community sports days.
‘Property is about the humans that inhabit it. It’s where we live, play, work, exercise and relax,’ says Greg, an avid sportsman and committed father of two. But even the architect of our urban lifestyle needs time out, and for his sanity, Greg escapes with his family to the bush, where there’s neither mobile phones nor Internet connectivity.
It might seem strange that a man whose first choice of profession was sport, then medicine, would end up in property development. But through a broader lens the disparate elements of Greg’s life come together like a map of the city he’s so instrumental in managing. Having played rugby at provincial level, but acknowledging he wasn’t going to make it in the big league, and reluctant to invest 13 years in medical school, Greg ultimately opted to toe the family line in property. He went to the US, where he learnt about urban models from the best of them, and on his return to South Africa he was instrumental in establishing turnkey hospitals and hotels for construction firm Basil Read. He later sidestepped to a career in finance, rising to regional general manager of BoE Corporate Property Finance before being seconded by Nedcor as managing director of Century City Limited. When Rabie acquired Century City from Nedcor in 2004, Deans joined Rabie as a partner.
From sport, Greg learnt to be a team player; from his experience with turnkey hospitals, he learnt to build according to the most demanding specifications; from his family he learnt about community needs; and from nature he learnt respect for the environment (at the heart of Century City is Intaka Island, a 16-hectare conservation area that provides a natural water-purification system for the six kilometres of navigable waterways and canals that service the development).
If each aspect of Greg’s life has a mirror function in his work, then nowhere is this more true than in his predilection for endurance sport. Having run the Two Oceans and the Comrades, cycled the Cape Absa Epic and completed Iron Man, the link between the strategy, staying power and mental muscle required for an uphill climb and the management and planning of a project on the scale of Century City is easy to see.
‘But there’s a difference,’ he adds a little wearily. ‘Even marathons have an end; when your energy dips you can always find the strength for a final spurt to the finish. But with Century City, there is no finishing line.’
So will this contribution to Cape Town’s shifting landscape be his opus? ‘Hmm, big word for a boy from Pretoria,’ he muses.
But Century City is a big idea. And at only half its total potential, we haven’t heard the last of it yet. Nor, you can be sure, have we heard the last of Greg Deans.

Well if they keep building 3F buildings and the like it will stay there. Height people, height!

Well if they keep building 3F buildings and the like it will stay there. Height people, height!
haha that reminds me of a model agency

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p210/rfataar/CenturyCity.jpg

haha that reminds me of a model agency

Haha, well if the shoe fits :cheers:

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p210/rfataar/CenturyCity.jpg

That's quite a lot of retail...

I took a walk around a part of Century City this morning and snapped a few photos. It's coming along very nicely.

All photos are available on my Flickr in bigger sizes :)

Liberty Life building:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2492/3934702362_d138eb8f66.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3608/3933943943_3fbed231d3.jpg

The site on which Canal Plaza will be built (to the right):

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2515/3934048161_80040d0c57.jpg

Knights Bridge in the distance:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3467/3934800908_5304d4dee3.jpg

Canal Walk in the distance:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3440/3934800902_80606bcdb7.jpg

Canal Walk and Knights Bridge in the distance:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2475/3933943951_5fe575cc7f.jpg

Houses along the Canal:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2593/3934048167_7a031de465.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2468/3934048169_27ab25eef7.jpg

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http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2670/3934048183_63005a3a6b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3080/3934702370_238bd9ce56.jpg

The view of Century City from a Waterstone East apartment:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2565/3935057276_3499fa0e35.jpg

Looking out towards Milnerton from the same apartment:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3439/3935057284_832329d5b0.jpg

Miscellaneous:

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http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3077/3934800896_b42b17883a.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2457/3934800910_e9ea75b178.jpg



Random exercise machines:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2495/3933943937_8dc0f0db06.jpg

are they copyright free? lol

or are you selling them :)

Hahaha, they're just simple phone photos.

Post em, spank em, whatever pleases you ;)

Great pics Lydon....made me really home sick!

Thanks :)

lydon actually took pix and post them...he must have woke up the right side of the bed....why dont u take pix of greenpoint stadia like that

Because I do not live anywhere near Greenpoint Stadium for starters...

How much are those apartments for a one bedroom? or two bedrooms in U.S dollars ?

Because I do not live anywhere near Greenpoint Stadium for starters...

dont u have a car

How much are those apartments for a one bedroom? or two bedrooms in U.S dollars ?

No idea. I'll ask my mate.

dont u have a car

Nope :)

ok....they must be mad expensive

Lydon go mission on a train or bus/ taxi, it can be fun :)

I want to live there - looks so nice

It does, I spent a week in Century City at Century View, nice place ,but SPIDERS EVERY F*CKING WHERE!

Really? xD I've never seen a spider there. How strange.

Crystal Towers from the N1

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc40/andresannman/100_6533.jpg

Gosh !!! Are they still building in Century City?

Lol of course xD There's new stuff popping up all over the place.

Crystal Towers from the N1

http://i436.photobucket.com/albums/qq89/diekapenaar/CrystalTowers.jpg

Knightsbridge

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2739/4110011805_f3f89d4943_o.jpg

Colosseum :)

http://www.centurycity.co.za/images/DSCF2974.jpg

Serving up a new Foodcourt for you at Canal Walk


Canal Walk shoppers can soon expect an exciting new food court with even more to curb their shopping appetite.

The revamped Foodcourt, which will be ready in November 2009, will combine well-loved favourites and new eateries seamlessly in a fresh and uplifting environment.

Canal Walk Shopping Centres is owned by Hyprop Investments Limited (80%) and Ellerine Bros (Pty) Ltd (20%). The owners are investing R25million in the development of an improved and extended Foodcourt.

“The aim of the revamp of the Canal Walk Foodcourt is to provide shoppers with a wider variety of menu options in an aesthetically pleasing environment. The revamped Foodcourt will be ready in time for the festive season, and the refurbished area will provide a relaxing space to unwind and rejuvenate during this busy shopping period,” says Wayne Abegglen, Chief Executive Officer of Canal Walk.

“The decision to extend the scope of retail at Canal Walk is underpinned by a growth in both retailer and customer demand. The additional retail element will ensure that Canal Walk continues to offer the most comprehensive shopping experience in Southern Africa,” says Abegglen.

Fast food giants McDonalds and KFC stores will be redefined, and KFC will also be extended. Both outlets will also be showcasing a new look, which will contribute to and complement the revamp of the Foodcourt as a whole.
A number of smaller kiosks have been incorporated into the area, which will offer a new variety of fast foods to shoppers.

One of the biggest changes to the Canal Walk Foodcourt will be the replacement of existing furniture with moulded contemporary furnishings. “The recessed seating area will be refurbished, which will create a calming element to the Foodcourt and will have a huge effect on the existing space,” explains Abegglen.

There will also be new covered walkways to add convenience to the shopping experience. Great emphasis has been placed on incorporating natural light into the area and seamlessly integrating the mall and the Foodcourt with a careful selection of fittings.

“Canal Walk is currently undergoing these changes to give our customers the best shopping experience possible,” says Abegglen. “We are also considering various other initiatives to ensure a unique experience for shoppers in the Canal Walk Foodcourt.”

The centre has also undertaken a minor revamp of La Piazza to create an enclosed environment during the notorious Cape Town winter months. The walkway to La Piazza will also be enclosed, extending the reach of the area to make it a more dynamic entity of Canal Walk. This will be completed by mid July.

“Our restaurant, cafes and fast food outlets play an essential role in the overall tenant mix of Canal Walk,” says Abegglen. “In addition to being a firm favourite with our shoppers, they also feature as an important service to the staff of our retailers and offices, becoming the ‘meeting rooms’, ‘canteens’ and ‘boardrooms’ of many businesses in the area, which use these facilities to complement their office premises.

Innovative shopping is synonymous with Canal Walk and the centre is currently introducing a new dimension with Boulevard Shopping in two-storey glass ‘pods’ which will include @homelivingspace, Bride & Co, Golfer’s Club, Cape Union Mart, Sports Direct, HI-FI CORPORATION and Urban Living. The stores can be easily reached with access off Century Boulevard into the open-air parking area. @home Living Space, Cape Union Mart, Golfers Club and Sports Direct is already trading.

Always striving to ensure that it provides an exceptional experience for its shoppers, this year Canal Walk has scooped two international awards. Canal Walk Shopping excelled at the prestigious International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC) Global MAXI Awards, where it was honoured for its excellent and innovative marketing, winning a coveted MAXI award in the Community Relations category for its Canal Walk Foundation project. Canal Walk’s Barney Event won Hit Entertainment International Pingu Award for the best live event of the year, recently announced at the awards ceremony in Florida, Hollywood.

---

I will hopefully grab some photos on Wednesday, now that I'm no longer sick :)

I will hopefully grab some photos on Wednesday, now that I'm no longer sick :)
Sorry to hear you weren't well, but happy you're feeling better :cheers:

...and looking forward to those pics :)

Thanks :)

What goes on at the Colloseum?Looks Emperor's Palaceish.

My mom works in the building...offices, a hotel and ground-floor retail. There's a few cafe's outside, such as Vida.

I noticed all the changes at the food court... was slightly confused.

Tried to get a photo, but there were security folk everywhere (guess that's a good thing), who don't take too kindly to photos for some reason.

That being said...:puke:...it looks worse in my opinion. Since when are platic chairs of various colours and white plastic tables considered "contemporary furnishings?" Sis. The new food outlets are basically two or three plastic constructions...one being a waffle house. The KFC and McDonalds don't look much bigger at all. They're essentially succeeded in making it feel far more cramped than it used to feel and somehow making it look worse.

All in all - fail. I'd love to know what they spent R25m on. Quite disappointing that it's basically the old version of the food court with less chrome and brighter colours (which is the last thing the food court needed).

Tried to get a photo, but there were security folk everywhere (guess that's a good thing), who don't take too kindly to photos for some reason.

That being said...:puke:...it looks worse in my opinion. Since when are platic chairs of various colours and white plastic tables considered "contemporary furnishings?" Sis. The new food outlets are basically two or three plastic constructions...one being a waffle house. The KFC and McDonalds don't look much bigger at all. They're essentially succeeded in making it feel far more cramped than it used to feel and somehow making it look worse.

All in all - fail. I'd love to know what they spent R25m on. Quite disappointing that it's basically the old version of the food court with less chrome and brighter colours (which is the last thing the food court needed).

Oh dear! That doesn't sound good at all :ohno:
Those tables & chairs sound something like the N1 City food court :nuts:

Thanks for the update Lydon :)

Went again today for supper as Long Street was packed, but alas the security buggers were at it again :P Sigh!

Sorry it's skew and blurry lol...

Sis. One thing that is very nice, though, is the re-done McDonald's and the new McCafe'.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4004/4206417288_4574be5636.jpg

:nuts: those tables and chairs are horrible!

...thanks for the pic though :)

No worries :) 'Modern contemporary furniture' my ass.

Umm, almost to scared to say this - but I think they are kinda nice.

I mean, cmon, look at the surrounds - its a food court!

I like it too, Gateway's food court also did a massive revamp and went for a similar approach, it cuts down clutter and they managed to get in more tables. As Digger said, its just a food court, not the royal dinning room.

But it looks worse than it did before! :banana:

^^If you say so

http://i45.************/2dt106d.jpg

Sorry it's skew and blurry lol...
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4004/4206417288_4574be5636.jpg

Remove the people and the Christmas trees and it would be a better comparison ;)

Sorry, dudes, Durbsboi wins this one...people or no people.

And, dont want to over say this - its a food court!

BUT - how about some other outside photos of Century City - anyone?

I took a whole load recently :) There's not much else to take photos of.

I'm starting to like it... It's quite funky... Takes some time to get use to...I like that in a way they have brightened up the area a bit. I hope the new tables and chairs are more comfortable.

Still not convinced =P With all those neon lights the last thing they needed to do is add yet more colour, haha.

Anyone know which construction company built Villa Italia, part of century views?

There's a board up outside the Virgin Active parking lot saying something along the lines of "welcome to the future" with a very sexy-looking glassy building in a render. There were no other details apart from rabie.co.za, which doesn't contain any details either. Hmmm...

Oh, and there's a board up for "The Estauries 2" that wasn't there until recently. It's situated near the back entrance to Century City, on the opposite side of the circle, diagonally from the Liberty Life building. Looks quite nice from what I've been able to see while driving.

Also saw the sign next to V.A- seems exciting, with great views!
I’m starting to like the new set up.
Firstly, the new couches behind mcD by simply Asia are pretty cool; great spot to just chill and look out at the canal while remaining indoors.
The new tables and chairs, much more comfortable and reminds me of being a 5 year old again.

They've repainted the fusion building. I think it blends in better with the buildings over the road now. The previous colour scheme was bold but out of place in my opinion.

Previous colour scheme:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2517/3934800886_f0d12313b3.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3446/3934750928_256cc403f8.jpg

New colour scheme:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2691/4237613041_4eb053eb00_b.jpg

Stupid cellphone camera doesn't pick up the colours well...it's a mixture between light and darker shades of cream and brown.

love this city, but it looks plastic only for the rich upper class may be some nuggets of middle class. i love it but i wouldnt live there

There's quite a lot of middle-class residents. Waterstone, for example, is catered towards the middle-class market.

Glad to see them making more use of the canals finally:

Century City Ferry

http://www.centurycity.co.za/images/img/Boat%20Trip.jpg

An hourly ferry service on the Grand Canal and around Intaka Island is to be launched from 4 December 2009.

The ferry will leave on the hour from Canal Walk near the food court from 10am to 4pm daily with two hop on/hop off stops provided at Crystal Towers five minutes after the hour and Intaka Island wetlands on the half hour.

The two ferries which will be in operation belong to the Century City Property Owners’ Association which now boasts a fleet of five boats including the new harvester.

Tickets cost R20 for adults and R10 for pensioners and children aged three to 12 years.

For more information please conact the CCPOA on 021 552 6889

Sponsorships sought for proposed Visitors Centre

Century City-based corporate sponsors are being sought to help fund the construction of a multi-purpose visitors centre for Intaka Island which will help the jewel of Century City fulfill its potential as enviro- educational facility.

A unique, multi-purpose wetland rich in indigenous flora and birdlife, Intaka Island is our environmental oasis and has been designed to provide ecosystems to conserve a rare and threatened fynbos vegetation type, to manage and improve water quality, as well as to provide a recreational and educational amenity. It comprises 8ha of ephemeral seasonal salt pans and Sand Plain fynbos and a further 8ha of reconstructed wetlands consisting of four ponds which act as a natural water purifier for the 7km of canals at Century City.

Home to 177 species of indigenous plants, including some red data species, as well as 120 bird species, Intaka Island has an internationally recognized herony and is the starting point of Bird Life SA’s Flamingo Birding Route.

Drawing more than 5000 visitors a year and with emerging partnerships with MTN Sciencentre, City of Cape Town’s Youth Environmental Schools (Yes) programme and local schools, Intaka Island is becoming known as an exciting enviro-education destination. However, to enable this important wetland to fulfill its potential in this regard, there is a clear need for a multi-functional Visitors’ Centre to accommodate groups of up to 75 at any one time and which will include an assembly area, educational activity centre, a reception and ablution facilities.

The proposed centre provides us with a unique opportunity to design, build and brand a modern, energy efficient, enviro-friendly green building which will not only meet Intaka Island’s enviro-educational needs but also be an opportunity to showcase sustaining living best practices optimizing energy and natural resource efficiencies.

Initial commitments to date to fund the centre have come from the Rabie Property Group and Nedbank who together have provided R1million in seed finance. All the professionals on the team are also working pro bono.

The Century City Property Owners’ Association (CCPOA), the Section 21 Company that manages Century City for all stakeholders, maintains and operates Intaka Island and has invested in its infrastructure which includes trails, bird hides, viewing platforms, and an indigenous nursery. In addition to being responsible for all Intaka Island operational costs, including the employment of three field ranges to conduct guided tours, the CCPOA is prepared to cover the day-to-day running costs of the proposed Visitors Centre which will include an educator to run enviro-educational programmes.

Additional corporate sponsors are now being sought to cover the remaining estimated R2m construction costs. Different levels of sponsorship, from small to large and in kind, are available, and all will be acknowledged on plaques in the Visitors Centre. We are in the process of setting up a Public Benefit Organisation so that donors will be able to receive Section 18 tax certificates as well as points for their BEE scorecards.

If you would like to get involved in this extremely exciting project please call Chris Blackshaw on 021 552 6889.

Thanks for updates Lydon. I like the ferry idea.

Can you please post the photo of Intaka Island.

I'm not sure when this is from, but you can get the general idea from this:

http://dostuffct.com/files/images/intaka-island-aerial.jpg

Screw the environment, make it a whitewater facility! That should bring revenues ! :)

http://www.canoeicf.com/site/canoeint/image/fullsize/230.jpg

Hello everyone. I really did like the picture of Century City. It looks like a modern place to live, similar to my city Montreal Canada. It did look a tad fabricated sometimes, like a similar feeling one gets looking at Dubai.

However I am curious. How is life in general in Cape Town. Is it as dangerous as Johanesburg? Are the people more integrated as a whole. Also, I am curious of the demographics of Centery City. During the pictures I saw a mix of black and white populations mingling, which was reassuring to see to say the least.

Also, how is Cape Town financial district?

P.S: Excuse my ignorance!

Hello :)

To be honest life is Johannesburg is only really dangerous if you live in a township or some dodgy area. The average middle class citizen will fall victim to crime more than many other countries on average, and that is undeniable, but if you take a look at the breakdown of statistics - especially when it comes to cases such as murder - you'll notice that townships are where the very very large majority of crime takes place.

Cape Town and all major cities in South Africa on the whole are easily livable. I never leave my house fearing for my life. I experience a first-world city on a daily basis. That been said, many don't, but the average suburban dweller is the type you'd find in most major cities around the world.

Century City's demographics are hard to sum up, as the mall attracts many people, and of course many others work in the suburb, others work there and yet others are there for other entertainment. Cape Town is fairly diverse and racially/culturally different to the rest of South Africa in that black people do not make up the majority. I can't say I've ever seen an issue regarding race occur with my own eyes. People live, work and play side by side as one would expect.

^^ Century City is a suburb of Cape Town, although many offices, large apartments and a huge shopping centre is located there... the Cape Town CBD, which acts as its "financial district" is 10km to the south-west of Century City underneath Table Mountain at the harbour.

You could imagine Cape Town CBD as Montreal and Century City as Laval for example. Century City is a commercial node within the broader metropolitan area.

Cape Town's CBD... "financial district" is very vibey, becoming more and more of a 24 hour city, lots of clubs, hotels, shops, cafes, restaurants, markets, pedestrianised streets and offices are located there. Generally the buildings are not very tall, only up to 150m, due to height restriction protecting the profile of Table Mountain as well as strong prevailing winds.

See the Cape Town gallery in the SA Forum should you want to see more.

Cheers Quebecios! :)

This is the board up at the parking lot next to the Virgin Active gym (opposite The Colloseum). Excuse the bad quality. It's a shorty, but nice and glassy...and way better than a parking lot!

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4022/4344094890_0aa5d33130_o.jpg

Hello :)

To be honest life is Johannesburg is only really dangerous if you live in a township or some dodgy area. The average middle class citizen will fall victim to crime more than many other countries on average, and that is undeniable, but if you take a look at the breakdown of statistics - especially when it comes to cases such as murder - you'll notice that townships are where the very very large majority of crime takes place.

.

Lydon: one of the top 10 most dangerous police districts in South Africa is in fact Sandton so to say that Joburg is only really dangerous if you are in a township is simply not true. A very large proportion of SA's most scary crimes: home invasions, cash in transit and hijacking occurs in the northern suburbs of Joburg.

There's a new signboard up for "Century Junction" next to the Liberty Life building. The site has been cleared for quite some time, and it looks like some work was done but had stalled for a few months. Anyway, the board's up now so looks like something is happening.

There is also a signboard up on the boundary of Century City opposite Sable Square. Doesn't say anything apart from www.amdec.co.za and a few logos, but I don't see anything on the Amdec site yet, so wonder what that could be.

Not expecting anything wonderful there though.

http://www.rabie.co.za/littlemoorings/images/big_image03.jpg

http://www.propertyworld.co.za/images/main_img12.jpg

http://www.propertyworld.co.za/images/main_img01.jpg

Taken today:

View from The Colosseum
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2734/4362423575_f992fa4a61_b.jpg

BMW Gateway building - love that post-it sticky ad!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2697/4363175202_13d05ee4b8_b.jpg

Residential blocks and the new "The Gatehouse" being built on the left
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4027/4363167668_598679e438_b.jpg

The joys of zoom :)

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4033/4392387530_8d0eae2922_o.jpg

Lovely pic Lydon.

Work is pretty far along on *something* at the Montague Gardens-side entrance to Century City. On the Summer Greens-side of the Century City bus station they're building a multi-storey something.

I think Century City must build like a model city for the future of South African Cities.. More highrises and higher density housing is neccessary with good and safe public transport like the BRT or maybe introduce LRT. SA cities are going into urban spirals.. Traffic is unbearable.. It is actually costing the economy every minute the working class waste on the roads. GO CENTURY CITY!!!

First it was horses, then it was bicycles. Then came 4-wheelers...now, the security personelle drive around on customised Sedgeways :D:

http://static.photo.net/attachments/bboard/00D/00D7xS-25039884.jpg

lols, next they gonna start pimping them out with mags, spinners and big subwoofers!!! :P

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc40/andresannman/100_7083.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc40/andresannman/100_7082.jpg

Century City steals spotlight
12 Mar 2010

Century City, situated close to the Cape Town CBD, is developing into a serious competitor to the traditional business node at the foot of Table Mountain.

The formerly abandoned wetland area has been developed, against all expectations, into a sought-after work, residential and leisure address over the last six years. It now boasts a capital value of R15,5bn, compared to R2bn in 2004.

Today 40,000 people live and work in Century City and record prices are being achieved for its units. This has happened in a market where sales are generally struggling after the recession stymied new developments.

John Chapman, a director for the Rabie Group, the owners of Century City since 2004, says the development is starting to deliver dividends.

“We’ve gone through the growth phase and reached the critical mass necessary for it to fully function as a mixed-use development.”

Investors who have invested in residential property in the development over the last three years, have ample reason to smile. Allen Usher, sales director of Property World, says while residential units sold for between R15k and R17k per sqm three years ago, they are now selling at R25k/sqm.

He believes it offers better value than the Cape Town CBD. “Investors get an all-encompassing lifestyle at Centruy City.”

The lifestyle components include 220,000sqm of prime office space housing a variety of businesses, 3,500 residential properties, five hotels for all kinds of budgets and Hyprop’s super-regional shopping centre, Canal Walk. More than 21 million shoppers visit this centre annually.

Usher says Century City’s latest residential offering, Crystal Towers Residences – comprising a part of the new five-star Crystal Towers Hotel & Spa – is selling superbly.

Of the 91 units with prices between R1,65m and R10,3m, 44 have been snapped up since the development’s launch last year. Two luxury roof apartments have been sold to local investors for R8,2m each, which is a record price for Century City. The previous record was a luxury roof apartment in the Knights Bridge development that fetched R5,2m.

Usher says the investor market is responsible for 25% of the sales and it is expected that a two-bedroom unit will achieve a rental amount of R7k per month. The monthly charges range between R1,152 and R4,766 for the super luxurious roof apartments of R10,3m.

The Crystal Towers hotel and residential units will be housing a big American delegation from Coca Cola during the upcoming Soccer World Cup.

Apart from the residential units there are houses available in the Waterstone Isles development. Prices in this development range between R2,64m for 168sqm with a monthly charge of R720 and R4,735m for 331sqm and a charge of R720.

Chapman says the group is opting for baby steps as far as new developments are concerned.

A 39-unit boutique development called Little Moorings was recently launched. It was designed as an energy-efficient development to lower the cost of living.

It includes a gas stove option and an energy-saving water-heating system. Prices start at R960k and range up to R1,95m. – Elma Kloppers, Sake24

http://www.property24.com/articles/top-stories/Century-City-steals-spotlight/11290

^^ That’s a bit worrying for CBD lovers. I suppose it’s good for both districts if they compete for attention. I know where I’d rather be though and it ain’t Century City.

I think that piece of writing is more an advertorial than an actual property article. The CBD is doing just fine with Century City's competition. I have seen no indication that Century City is growing at the expense of the CBD. They wrote it purely based on Rabie's opinion, who own Century City, and never asked Andrew Boraine about the effect on the CBD; the Cape Town Partnership is more than happy with developments in the inner-city.

Haha exactly...I think it's more of an advert than fact :D The numbers speak for themselves.

Action-packed four day sports festival for Century City


Century City will this year be hosting an action-packed four-day Sports Festival from Friday 19 March until Monday 21 March including an official 10km Road Race.

Building on the inaugural festival held last year, the Century City 2010 Sports Festival, which is aimed at both corporate teams and individual participants and will provide both participatory and spectator sports, will be held in and around Central Park and will include fun, food and entertainment for the whole family.

This year’s event will include the Crystal Towers Century City 10km Road Race, which forms part of Western Province Athletics calendar, and a 2,5km Family Fun Run/Walk.

It will also include Touch Rugby tournaments, *Five-a-side Corporate Soccer competitions, *Kermesse Road *Circuit Cycling races, Dragon Boat Racing, a Western Province Junior Canoe Marathon and Schools’ Touch Rugby and Soccer competitions.

The inter Provincial Dragon Boat Championship (which will be held over the first three days of the festival) and Schools’ Rugby competitions will kick off the festival on Friday and will be followed by the Crystal Towers Century City 10km Road Race on Saturday 20 March at 7.30am. This will be followed at 7.45am by a 2,5km Family Run/Walk on a safe, scenic running trail along the Canal and around Intaka Island nature reserve.

Both running events are open to the public. The entry fee for the Crystal Towers Century City Road Race is R20 for licensed runners and R40 for unlicensed runners. The entry fee for the Family Run/Walk is R20. Entry forms are available at www.centurycity.co.za, *or at registration on the day which will take place from 6am at Central Park.

Cash prizes will be awarded to category winners and places with all finishers receiving medals.

The running events will be followed by the Touch Rugby tournaments from 11 am on Saturday afternoon with 32 teams – 16 corporates and 16 league teams - participating.

Sunday’s festivities will start at 7am with a *Kermesse Road Circuit Cycling races being organized by the City Cycling Club with the Five-A-Side Corporate Soccer *tournament taking place from 10am with 48 teams competing.

Monday’s events will include the Western Province Junior Canoe Marathon and a Schools’ five-a-side Soccer Tournament.

Organised under the auspices of the Century City Property Owners’ Association, the sports festival is being sponsored by among others, Crystal Towers Hotel & Spa, Canal Walk and Powerade.

Great spot prizes and lucky draws for participants will be held over the four days.

The festival will offer all day fun, food and entertainment for the whole family with a Kiddie’s Corner near the field offering a wide range of entertainment including a jumping castle, a giant slide, face painting, balloons and free-style soccer jugglers.

Corporate teams wishing to participate in the Touch Rugby tournaments should contact Neil on 021 439 8646.

General Festival and Soccer inquiries should be directed to Daniel on *021 433 1155, 072 2121 053 or email him at Daniel@interactivesport.co.za.

For further information go to www.centurycity.co.za.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2463/3644114271_4a36d38e78_b.jpg
by violencia.visual (http://www.flickr.com/photos/violenciavisual/)

Canal Plaza site to the right.

So this is currently going up next to the bus station at the Montague Gardens entrance to Century City. Anyone have any idea what it is? It's quite long (extends to the left out of the photo).

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/4490143212_3a95a4b956_b.jpg

I dont know what that is, but I did notice the Crystal Towers footbridge is more or less in place now as I drove by...

isnt this the bus stop??

The building that takes up the majority of the photo is, yes, but look to the left of the bus stop. You'll notice something going up ;) It extends off to the left of the photo, so it's quite large.

An overview I quickly made of what's currently going down, what will be going down soon, and what should have been going down already but hopefully will soon at Century City:

? = no cooking clue what it is but it's happily under construction
Little Moorings = advanced sales phase; construction should begin soon
The Estuaries 2 = sales phase
Century Junction = seems to have stalled; site cleared
Canal Plaza = seems to have stalled
Aurecon = location what I can gather from the render/description; should commence construction soon
The Gatehouse = construction very advanced; should be finished soon
Unnamed offices = board with render up on-site but no other info available

List excludes the recently-announced Porsche Centre.

On another note...I'm still astounded that they're using the space between Canal Walk and the N1 for a freaking driving range. WTF? Other than that, there's still quite a lot of available space in Century City come to think of it. Hopefully we'll start to see some more height soon. Especially around the Island-Club side of the Canal. There's a lot of open space there that would be perfect for some talls.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2070/4555146399_274a20a13c_o.jpg

A nice video overview of Century City:

5HfVdj0hoQE

^^:ohno:
the only black guy i saw in that vid was serving. this speaks volumes. it pisses me off. its africa and blacks getting boyed about on our own land. thats painful. we need to wake up

*rolls eyes*