The Cape Town city council has welcomed a R1,2bn development in Foreshore which would be the tallest building in the city.

The 3 500m² property, Port side, has a strategic location at the entrance to the city, along Buitengracht Street between Hans Strijdom Avenue and Mechau Street.

Simon Grindrod, mayoral committee member for economic, social development and tourism, says this will be Cape Town’s single biggest development since the establishment of the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront.

The Malgas site was sold by the city in May last year to the Old Mutual Property Group for more than R89m.

Brent Wiltshire, property development executive of Old Mutual Investment Group Property Investments, said the development would be benchmarked according to the green building council of SA’s green star rating system.

At the launch, Cape Town mayor Helen Zille said the initiative was an excellent example of “how the private and public sector could work together in realising the city’s strategic objectives of economic growth and development”.

Grindrod said it was an illustration of how the public and private sector could work in harmony to create investment and jobs for Cape Town residents.

With a height of about 150m, Portside would be the tallest building in Cape Town.

“The allowable bulk is about 60 000m² which is another record,” Grindrod said. “

The development will comprise 33 000m² of offices, 14 500m² of hotel accommodation and 2 500m² of retail space.

“This is a significant show of confidence on the part of SA’s largest financial services company in Cape Town’s CBD,” he said.

According to Mansoor Mohamed, the city’s executive director of economic, social development and tourism, this was Old Mutual’s largest project in Cape Town to date.

“The city of Cape Town is busy implementing an infrastructure-led economic development strategy. I am very satisfied that it took such a short time of 12 months to progress this transaction,” said Mohammed.

Colin Young, head of institutional real estate at OMIGPI, said the company would deliver Portside on behalf of the Triangle Development Fund which it recently launched.

“This is a closed-end fund structured as a collection of unlisted real estate investment trusts, the first time this structure has been used in the South African property investment market,” said Young.

He said the project was one of the opportunities being created by the fund for multiple investors, from South African and offshore corporations and institutions to affluent individuals, seeking an investment that produced a high capital return, together with sustained long-term growth.

Wiltshire said completion of Portside was being targeted for 2011.

Source: Business Day