The six-storey office block, which includes three levels of parking, will provide a total leasable area of 5200 square metres and 342 covered parking bays. The project also includes a new motor assessment centre for Auto & General.

It is to be built on a prime site fronting onto Century Boulevard opposite Century Square, which was Harries Projects first commercial development at Century City and which is long sold out.

Roger Harries, Managing Director of Harries Project, said that only 500 square metres remained to be sold in the sectional title Boulevard Square development and this too was under negotiation. Office space in Boulevard Square, he said, was being sold for R8500 per square metre, excluding VAT, with a very generous parking ratio of close to seven bays per 100 square metres being provided.

According to Marc Cohen, Sales Director of Harries Projects,  office vacancies at Century City are at an all-time low of less than 1% with little stock available to meet the burgeoning demand from the corporate sector to be based there. 

"We have not even marketed Boulevard Square and have been literally inundated with inquiries from both investors and owner-occupiers. In fact so much so we are looking at launching a second office development of 8000 square metres on a neighbouring site to meet this unprecedented demand and we anticipate being in a position to announce details shortly," he said.

Greg Deans, managing director of Century City Property Developments (Pty) Ltd, the developers of Century City, said as predicted demand for commercial space at Century City had picked up dramatically in the past six months and they were going all out to bring new stock to the market.

"Our Colosseum development, which combines offices with residential lofts and ground-floor ancillary retail has met with a very positive response from the market and much of the space is currently under negotiation.

"We have also recently sold a site to a financial institution that is planning a 19 000 square metre office development for their own use with at least three other exciting owner-occupier deals in the pipeline."

Construction of Boulevard Square s scheduled to start in September this year with completion set for September 2006.

It is the fourth major development to be undertaken by Harries Projects at Century City in the past few years. The first project undertaken was Century Square followed by the 445 unit The Island Club residential development which was undertaken in a joint venture with Rabie Property Projects, and more recently the R500m Oasis retirement village which is being undertaken in a joint venture with Spearhead Property Holdings.

Harries said the same professional team used on their previous Century City projects had been appointed, namely Marc Harries Architects; De Villiers Sheard (Structural and Civil Engineers); DSV Consulting Engineers (Electrical Engineers); Forsyth Vermeulen & Partners (Quantity Surveyors); David Hellig & Abrahamse (Land Surveyors); Planning Partners (Town Planners and Landscape Architects) and Harries Projects (Project Managers).