October 2, 2004

By Graham Norris

Property Editor - The R500-million Airport City development next to Cape Town International Airport has been acquired by an international consortium in partnership with local shareholders who plan to create a world-class industrial business park.

The local shareholders include CSV Construction, headed by Johnny
Cullum, who has 13 years' experience and substantial investment in industrial and commercial property in and around Cape Town.

Airport Industria is one of the fastest growing industrial nodes in the Western Cape and is one of the few locations where vacant land is still available at reasonable prices.

The industrial and commercial nodes in and around the airport have attracted a range of businesses including tourism operators, hi-tech services associated with e-commerce, niche agricultural suppliers, plastics, packaging, film and video production, transportation (freight services) storage and cargo handling firms.

The 88-hectare Airport City is the biggest single tract of land still available next to the airport. Sales are gathering speed, with nearly 75% of the first phase sold and a further R10m already committed.

Project marketing facilitators include Broll Property Group, Baker Street, Marriott Property Services and Diamond Properties.

Interest in the development is being shown by companies with international operations, such as freight, courier, car-hire, storage, manufacturing and web-order fulfilment businesses. Proximity to the airport is an important factor for such companies. 
 
Nedbank, Airport City's project financier, is confident that security at the development will be of the highest quality.

The security systems will be designed to be co-ordinated with each company's own control systems. The guardhouse at the park's entrance will be fully manned at all times, it will have CCTV electronic surveillance and power supply backups.

The park will have state-of-the-art telecommunications including high-speed ISDN lines.

Landscaping of green spaces, with Airport City's water feature and sculpture designed by Cape Town land artist Strijdom Van Der Merwe, will be special features.

By 2030 Cape Town International Airport will be a multimillion-rand "aero-city" tourist centre, with restaurants, hotels, service station and state-of-the-art landscaped terminals.

The Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) is expecting record passenger numbers for the coming season. During the past financial year 5.46 million passengers moved through Cape Town International Airport. Experts believe the airport, as a destination airport, rather than a distribution hub, can expect 12 million passengers to move through its facilities by the year 2015.