Yet another high-rise building project is being proposed for Johannesburg northern suburb Sandton's central business district (CBD).
This follows the completion of the R300-million Johannesburg Stock Exchange building, R450-million Nedcor super block and the R360-million Sandton Convention Centre late last year.
Some of the other well-established buildings in the Sandton CBD include Rand Merchant Bank, Investec, Sanlam, Merill Lynch and Alexander Forbes, positioning the area as the financial power-house of South Africa.
And now, construction on what is believed will be the tallest building in the area is expected to begin this year, also aimed at the professional-services sector.
The proposed R360-million, 22-story-high glass building, Gwen Lane Towers, will be about four storeys higher than the Rand Merchant Bank building and will be visible from the N1 highway.
The building will be constructed on the site of the former Absa computer centre, next to the ten-storey Johannesburg Stock Exchange building.
An additional two storeys will be added to an existing four-storey building adjacent to the 22-storey block.
Parking will also be boosted from the current three bays for every 100 m2 to five bays for every 100 m2.
'The building will be aimed at forward-thinking young, dynamic companies,' says project architect Boogertman Krige architect Henk Boogertman.
Apart from its streamlined design, the building will also incorporate the latest trends in building-management systems, on the one hand, and energy management on the other.
For instance, he says that the double-glazed façades on the east and west sides of the building will allow for improved management of energy, especially air-conditioning.
'Even in this very early concept, we are thinking carefully about the energy management, because it is a huge building and the tenant will have to bear these costs,' says Boogertman.
In addition, the building will house an independent managed computer mainframe facility, which will provide, among other things, wide-area network connectivity, disk space and helpdesk facilities.
It will also enable the integration of service management, such as lighting, electricity, security and communications.
'The existing building will be gutted and almost rebuilt, and will give access to the 22-storey building behind it,' he says.
'The intention is to keep the front portion of the building intact and remove the whole back portion of the building and its basement structures, which will be rebuilt and reconfigured over two floors.'
The first phase of the project will involve demolishing sections of the computer centre, rebuilding the two floors and refurbishing it.
Construction of the high-rise section will be undertaken in the second phase.
The developer is Homestake Properties, a joint venture company between WBHO and PCP Equity.
WBHO chairperson Brian Holmes says that the bulk of the construction work will be undertaken once tenants have been secured.
This can be attributed to the design of the building being tenant-driven, requiring the occupants' input.
mcintosh Latilla Carrier and Laing has been appointed as the quantity surveyor.
Leasing agents Colliers RMS and McCreedy Friedlander are confident that they will have the first 12 000 m2 of office space occupied by September or October this year.
'There are still a couple of months of preplanning before we have to begin with the final details when everything has to be finalised,' confirms Holmes.