The regeneration of the inner city has been one of the City of Johannesburg's most successful ventures. The public sector and the private sector have come together to help the inner city get back on its feet. Major investments have been made, including the businesses that have chosen to return to the CBD. Is there something for Pretoria to learn?
It’s common knowledge that Johannesburg has had to fight this battle for some time. Initially the Better Building Programme was set up to restore derelict buildings and take back parts of the city in severe decay but the process proved laborious, taking as long as two years to get one building through litigation and judgment. Now transitional housing, BBP’s biggest stumbling block, will be provided to current residents of buildings that will be refurbished by the specially formed Transitional Housing Trust (THT) which will manage the process.
Now BBP has evolved into the Inner City Property Scheme (ICPS). The City of Johannesburg has created a restoration solution, though driven by the private sector. A large portion of the City’s property portfolio will be transferred to the ICPS through a series of structured sale transactions. Participants in the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) transactions were selected through a Request for Proposal process, and are required to provide a minimum equity contribution of R 5 million. The city would ensure that the option to buy was exercised only once the dilapidated property had been refurbished. Time will tell of course how effective this is.
So what about Pretoria? Oelofse doesn’t really get as far as dealing with derelict buildings but draws attention to the lack of development in the CBD over the past 20 years with the exception of the new national library and the basic education department buildings,the revamp of the central government offices in Church Street, the upgrade of the old Home Affairs and South African Agricultural Union buildings and central government offices on the corner of Church and Bosman streets. However council buildings have not been repaired.
Who could forget the Munitoria fire of 1987 where 50% of council’s operating space was lost? In April 2011, it was announced that development of the new head office would commence before the end of the year, however to date this has not been implemented.
Oelofse says that “the absence of new developments has resulted in the stagnation of this very important national landmark, with a gradual migration away from the precinct resulting in vacant buildings with little demand for the space. In an effort to prevent buildings from going to ruin and to protect their investments, property owners have converted a number of office buildings into residential units, to cater for the demand for such accommodation. Although this has reduced the over-supply of office space to some extent, it has not created any new developments.”
However there is no shortage of demand for retail space so spending on maintenance of buildings is neglected and as a result the deterioration of buildings continues. Oelofse cites a recent survey done of 34 major buildings comprising B and C grade space having a 20.8% vacancy. That’s 110 794sqm of 532 604sqm! By contrast the SAPOA Office Vacancy Survey covering just over 500 000sqm of private sector stock shows a vacancy rate of only 4.8% as at end 2011. Questions as to which is a more accurate reflection of the office market now clearly begs answering.
Regardless, Oelofse goes on to point out that: ”Significant amounts of money will need to be spent on these B and C grade buildings in order to bring them into an acceptable state for letting. Of note is that what is considered B grade space in the CBD is materially different from B grade buildings in the decentralised nodes, where the quality and economic use of space is of a higher standard, due to the age difference of the buildings.”
In fact the contrast is marked between the decentralised nodes and the CBD with 185 000sqm of growth over the past five years, not including Menlyn. Oelofse asks the question: “why is there a reluctance to redevelop the buildings in the CBD to create a capital city worthy of South Africa and a leader in Africa?” The answer to that is uncertain since one may argue that the nature of modern cities is as much decentralisation as it is to maintain and even restore CBDs. Since Tax concessions have been approved for development in the CBD one may suggest that there is some will.
In fact Oelofse himself points out that Tshwane town planning officials published an “excellent document”, 'The Inner City Development Strategy', as a development guideline for the CBD, which was adopted for implementation by the council around 2005. He does make the point though that all the planning has been done, strategic studies were done in 2000 by the Department of Public Works determining future office space requirements for the next 20 years. It launched the Re Kgabisa initiative in 2005 involving 40 government departments, 1,2 million sqm of office spacewith an estimated 10-14 years to implement.
But Oelofse’s beef seems to be with the use old buildings and the lack of new ones. His concern is focused specifically on old government /municipal buildings. ”The efficiency of the old buildings is to be questioned.” He says.“Old buildings are simply becoming older and more inefficient, just postponing the inevitable move, while new buildings will extend the usefulness and efficiencies of the CBD for a further 20-40 years.”
Which brings us back to contemplating Jo'burg’s BBB programme mentioned above or to consider the Cape’s response to derelict buildings. Cape Town faces having to create what’s being termed a “Problematic Building’s Unit.” The unit was formed last December to focus on and to deal with, derelict buildings, which were contravening regulations, including those relating to fire and health. This move is a partnership with the city's Human Settlements Department. A bylaw was passed last year initially identifying 280 problem buildings. By half way through the year there remained 160 buildings under investigation throughout Cape Town - in the city centre, Mitchells Plain, Durbanville, Salt River and Camps Bay.
That’s just by-the-way since Oelofse doesn’t really touch on the seedier end of the old buildings scale in Pretoria CBD. This despite the Tshwane Metro Council passing of a by-law to deal with derelict building last year. DA councillor Professor Duncan Baker said in October that the by-law was overdue. Baker was exposing the unscrupulous habit of some developers to be buying up property in anticipation of development, leaving it to fall into disrepair in the interim.
Oelofse believes that a useful exercise would be to ascertain the cost of current fragmentation of the municipal council functions and government departments, located in various buildings across Pretoria and compare that to the cost of consolidating those functions/departments by location. “Rentals are the most obvious costs, however the costs related to fragmented departments are about duplication of services, functions, rental charges, security and inefficiencies in systems, as opposed to new, well-planned accommodation providing efficient, modern working conditions.” Say Oelofse.
We have to take Oelofse’s point about decentralisation of departments. But many cities around the world and in South Africa - Johannesburg and Cape Town for example - are seeing fruit in the restoration of old buildings. Oelofse implies that shiny new buildingsshould be built and that government departments and the Tshwane municipality be centralised.
It sounds neat and orderly but it may not be sustainable, post the completion of new buildings, since not every eventuality can be catered for: government departments grow, split, change and even multiply. On the other hand perhaps it is the duty of government to ensure that the Pretoria CBD remains alive to the sound of rubberstamps whilst leaving the private sector to continue to explore the decentralised nodes of Tshwane.
