The land on which the park will be developed was recently jointly acquired by the Cavaleros Group and 1st African Property Group for an undisclosed sum.
The land, near the Gateway Shopping Centre with access from the N2 highway, was bought from Moreland Developments and used to be the Old Mill site of Tongaat Hullett.
Sureshan Moodley, MD of 1st African Property Group, says the acquisition is the single-biggest acquisition of vacant industrial land in KwaZulu-Natal.
Moodley says 1st African Property and the Cavaleros Group will be building more than 120,000m² of freehold space.
"It will cater for warehouse and light industrial," he says.
Moodley says there is huge demand for industrial property across the country and that the planned industrial park is in a prime position to benefit from this as it is situated 15km from Durban's port and the N2 and N3 interchange.
The planned development is also conveniently placed for Durban's King Shaka airport.
Moodley says one unique feature of the park is that it is close to a strong labour pool in Mount Edgecombe, Umhlanga, Phoenix, KwaMashu and Verulam.
The land is already zoned for light industrial development and developers will be able to develop 80% of the total site.
Moodley says this is an advantage because you can usually only develop up to 40% to 50% in other industrial property nodes such as Longmeadow or Linbro in Johannesburg and Riverhorse Valley in KwaZulu-Natal.
"This site offers better building expansion opportunities. If you wanted to put up a 5,000m² warehouse you don't have to buy 10,000m² of land. You probably need to buy 6,500m² which makes for better cost efficiencies," he says.
Moodley says the two property groups plan to hold onto the development once it is completed because of expected strong rental growth.
Construction is expected to begin early next year while the development of the entire site will probably take two to three years. - Nick Wilson
Business Day
Publisher: I-Net Bridge
Source: I-Net Bridge
