The life of a city is cyclical, and this is particularly true of inner city areas that go through times of great popularity, and then great neglect. Think of Hillbrow in Johannesburg, that was the place to live in the 1960s but by the 1990s had became an area avoided by anyone who didn’t have a particular kind of business there. It’s now improving for the better, thanks to a project called eKhaya.
Many inner city areas are on the “up”, thanks to the vision and commitment of a number of smart investors and developers — and the inner city areas of Johannesburg and Pretoria in particular are becoming home to the “cool kids” once again.
These developers are taking the task on one building at a time, regenerating and repurposing existing buildings where possible, or knocking down and starting again from scratch where a building is beyond rescue.
One such company is Blok, the luxury property development division of Prime Residential Group.
Blok’s managing director, Jacques van Embden, says there are certain qualities in a site that make it desirable for regeneration. “There needs to be enough integrity in the existing structure for it to be converted or added to. There must also be a level of quality in the existing design —something that makes it stand out, and one that practically lends itself to redevelopment.
“If a site has been earmarked for residential development, it must be plausible to re-shape the footprint on the floor plate to allow access, light quality and ventilation into the various spaces, which need to ‘work’ as spaces in their own right too.”
Context is vital. “The benefit of being in a city is what a building’s residents can connect to, so the immediate surrounds are very important. For example, an inner city residential building that is close to a park is desirable, while one that is too close to a highway would not be,” says Van Embden.
City Property is managing a number of buildings in Pretoria and Johannesburg that have undergone regeneration, and Lize Nel, marketing specialist at the company, said that it was determined to stay in the Pretoria inner city when big corporates moved to the east of Pretoria.
“The properties that have worked well in the area are quality buildings mostly owned by Octodec that offer quality accommodation, and the areas around the State Theatre and the Reserve Bank are gaining popularity among young up-and-coming South Africans who want the convenience and excitement of living in the city,” she says.
The area is well serviced by public transport, and while there are a number of students living there who commute to the University of Pretoria, most residential tenants have moved to the city from outlying areas. Tenants need to prove a combined household income of R25 000 to move in, so the accommodation is by no means low cost.
“One of City Property’s strategies for the area is to identify tenants who will serve the needs of residents, so we are working with the right mix of retailers, as well as encouraging the big corporate names to come back to the city,” says Nel.
“We’re also working with the government, as the inner city is a great location close to the Union Buildings and the Reserve Bank, providing easy-to-access space at lower costs than many other areas.”
This is in support of the government’s Re Kgabisa Tshwane programme being led by the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality and the departments of public works, and public service and administration, which aims to ensure a long-term accommodation solution for national government head offices and agencies within the city.
One of the mixed use sites that City Property manages is the recently completed 1 on Mutual, which is a heritage listed double storey office building that was redeveloped to include retail, offices and apartments.
Originally known as “Ons Eerste VolksBank” (our nation’s first bank) or “The Red Building”, it was built in 1930 and now contains 142 new residential units, a large landscaped entertainment courtyard, a social seating space and a playground for children.
The ground floor retail space opens onto all surrounding streets, encouraging passing trade as well as business from residents.
If there are heritage sites that can be given new life, there are also sites that simply require demolition and new construction for the regeneration of an area to work. Jeff’s Place on Francis Baard Street in Pretoria was one such site, where the existing building was “a den of iniquity that was eventually bricked closed”.
“The old building needed to be destroyed for the overall upliftment of the area, and Jeff’s Place now offers bachelor, one and two bedroom apartments, prepaid water and electricity, internet access and DSTV connectivity, with rentals between R3 200 and R4 200 per month,” says Nel. “There’s also a playground for children.”
While residential properties are they key to bringing people back to the inner city, it’s essential that there are recreational spaces too. 012 Central on Helen Joseph Street is a reclaimed warehouse space that is used for a variety of events, with its industrial backdrop providing a great backdrop for weddings, birthday celebrations and events. The area will be home to a market from the end of May, and will be hosting the Whisky Live Showroom on May 14 and 15.
“Our strategy is to keep showing Pretoria’s people that the inner city is a great place to be, and we’re working closely well-loved institutions like the State Theatre to encourage people to come back to the area,” says Nel.
It seems to be working for Octodec, which owns many of the Pretoria sites that City Property manages. The company reported a 9.3% rise in distributions per share in the six months to February this year, compared to the same period last year, with nett rental income from its properties lifting to R443.67-million from R140.94-million the previous year (with its merger with Premium Properties adding to value).
The City of Johannesburg has invested substantial resources into regenerating the city’s CBD, with public-private partnerships in districts like Maboneng and Newtown showing inspiring results. The Gauteng government, currently the inner city’s biggest tenant, has plans to develop the area around Market Square into a government precinct.
The city’s regeneration strategy aims to raise and sustain private investment in the inner city, leading to a rise in property values, through intensive urban management (including improvements to service quality and strict enforcement of by-laws), upgrading and maintenance of infrastructure, support for those economic sectors that have the potential to grow and thrive in the inner city, discourage abandoned or poorly managed buildings, and encourage “ripple effect investments” that can lift an entire area.
Distinct precinct plans are in place, including around Newtown, Constitutional Hill, Jewel City and Joubert Park, and areas like the Fashion District and Maboneng are as much draw cards to the Johannesburg inner city as their more conventional counterparts in the suburbs.
Even though it is often held up as the poster child of everything that is wrong with Johannesburg, there has been significant headway made in uplifting Hillbrow through the eKhaya neighbourhood development programme, a partnership between the Johannesburg Housing Company and Trafalgar Properties.
The programme started with the setting up of a voluntary association, with a constitution, involving four landlords who owned eight buildings between them. The initial issues identified by the association as being barriers to the success of the district were identified as crime and grime.
The first was tackled by breaking the anonymity between building managers and internal security, while an “Our Safe eKhaya New Year” campaign saw an immediate and dramatic reduction in the vandalism normally associated with that time of year.
Landlords and building managers worked together to reduce the disposal of rubbish on streets and in the lanes, with the funds required to pay for security and cleaning services raised through a R24 levy per unit, which was managed by Trafalgar.
The next phase worked on improving security and mobilising community co-operation and leadership, with the initiative campaigning for the improvement of two open spaces that were previously used for dumping, drug dealing and other criminal activities. The City allocated R7-million for the upgrading of a derelict site on Claim Street, and offered further investment for the upgrading of an empty plot into a recreation area.
The initiative was expanded to a wider area within Hillbrow, and achieved success through ongoing engagement with stakeholders, careful planning around the execution of particular projects in the area (rather than trying to fix everything all at once), and the skills of a hands-on facilitator who had a high level of skill in building relationships with all the stakeholders in the area.
These attributes seem to be true of any successful inner city regeneration project.