"Airport Industria is becoming one of the fastest growing and most popular industrial nodes in the Western Cape. It is one of the few locations where vacant land is still available at reasonable prices. Airport City is the biggest single tract of land still available next to Cape Town International Airport. The scale and locality alone of this new ‘City at the Airport’ sets it apart from any other deve-lopment," says spokesman Johnny Cullum.

Sales of land at Airport City are gathering speed, with nearly 75% of the first phase sold and a further approximate R10 million worth already committed. Project marketing facilitators including Broll Property Group, Baker Street, Marriott Property Services and Diamond Properties all show great enthusiasm for the future of Airport City, according to Cullum.

Airport City is at the centre of Borchards Quarry Road, Cape Town International Airport and the highly visible N2 freeway to Somerset West. It is situated in the heart of the Cape Town Metropole within 20 minutes from Cape Town CBD, Bellville, Claremont and the Helderberg Basin.

This central location and easy access makes Airport City one of the most highly sought after Industrial Business Parks in the Western Cape.

"Increased activity in the industrial market began in the second half of 2002 with some large users increasing the demand for owner/occupier investment. Interest in the development is 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, as is security.

Nedbank, Airport City’s project financiers, is confident that security at the development will be of the highest standard.

The security systems will be designed to be coordinated with each company’s own control systems. The guardhouse (under construction) at the park’s entrance will be fully manned at all times and will have foolproof commu-nication (CCTV electronic surveillance) and power supply backups. The heavy steel Baekert Bastion perimeter fence that is already in place around the phase one perimeter will be under 24hour guard patrol, according to Cullum.

The high-priority security aspect of Airport City is attracting enquiries from security-conscious firms, including manufacturers of high value products.

A tremendous amount of time and effort has been spent on the design and layout of the indigenous gardens to be landscaped in the development. Innovative use of materials has resulted into trans-formation of an uniquely aesthetically pleasing working environment.

Throughout the world, airports play an important role in regional economic development; they are known as employment generators, transportation hubs, global links and business amenities.

By 2030 Cape Town International Airport will be a multimillion-rand ‘aero-city’ tourist centre, complete 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. Similarly, the industrial and commercial nodes in and around Cape Town International Airport have various sector growth opportunities. Some of these include tourism, hi-tech services associated with e-commerce, niche agricultural markets, plastics, packaging, film and video production, transportation, storage and cargo handling.