WOLF Cesman, also known as Mr Sandton City and the father of the Eastgate mall, was honoured recently with a South African Council of Shopping Centres Pioneer Award.

It was given in recognition for his vision and leadership in establishing and consistently positioning Sandton City and Eastgate as SA's two top-performing super-regional shopping centres.

His leadership was also recognised when Sandton City received the ICSC Award at the second World Congress of the International Council of Shopping Centres in Vienna in 1995, as one of the world's top 20 shopping malls of the 20th century.

He was also given honorary life membership of the South African Council of Shopping Centres.

Cesman, 61, who was with Liberty Properties for 24 years and was MD of the company from 1983 until he retired in February 2000, joined Corpcapital in 2000 after close friend and colleague Marc Wainer invited him to come on board.

Cesman is one of the leading property figures in SA but is wary of interviews as well as titles.

In an interview last week, when asked what his title was at Corpcapital's property division, he said: "Just say I'm an executive in the property division. We don't need titles, we want to go out and do the job."

Cesman feels "extremely honoured" that he received the award. "It's wonderful recognition. One doesn't do things to receive recognition, but it is a wonderful to receive such an award."

Although Cesman was not involved in the creation of Sandton City, he was deeply involved in its massive expansion in the early 1980s.

"I was involved in the establishment of Eastgate," he says.

At the end of February 2000, Cesman retired as MD of Liberty Properties, which owns Sandton City and Eastgate .

"I wanted to do something different and I decided at that stage I'd be a property consultant," he says.

However, Wainer, also a leading South African property figure, contacted him and told him he was about to list property loan stock company Redefine Income Fund and invited him to join the board.

"A month or two later he asked what I planned to do and I said I'm going to be a consultant. He said he was going to set up the property division of Corpcapital and wouldn't I like to join and do whatever I intended doing on my own."

Cesman joined and said that in hindsight it turned out to be a "great decision. CorpCapital has a wonderful infrastructure and we've worked with a lot of young and clever people."

Corpcapital's property division asset-manages listed property funds Redefine and Prima Property Trust and has a 30% share in the asset management company of property loan stock company Hyprop Investments and a majority share in the asset management company of property loan stock company ApexHi Properties. The division also has a small share in the asset management company of Capital Property Fund.

Cesman is also a director on the boards of ApexHi, Capital, Hyprop, Prima and Redefine.

Corpcapital is currently unbundling its assets. Negotiations are at an advanced stage to dispose of a majority interest in the property division to an existing partner.

"The existing management, Wainer and I, will continue doing what we're doing," he said.

Cesman, who is a chartered accountant and has in the past represented Liberty on the boards of Edgars, Capital and Counties in the UK, Premier Group and Metro and was also on boards of Liberty Group and Liberty Holdings, said his success in buying Canal Walk in Cape Town for Hyprop was probably the "most exciting and quickest deal that I've ever concluded".

The sale of Canal Walk at R1,16bn is the single biggest property deal in SA to date.

"We're having fun and we're also passionate about what we do," Cesman says.

Nov 05 2003 07:21:01:000AM Nick Wilson Business Day 1st Edition