More than 25,000m² of new office space would be added to Melrose Arch in Johannesburg, with earthworks for the R600m development beginning next month, developers Melrose Arch Development Company announced last week.

Phased occupation begins in February 2008.

Director Nicholas Stopforth said the time was ideal to bring Offices on The Piazza to the market due to "positive property fundamentals, the strong economic environment and resultant fervent appetite for business space".

He said the development was a result of "unrelenting demand for commercial space in the fully let existing precinct".

The 25716m² of triple A, sub-divisible office space, consisting of nine separate, individualised office buildings, will be located at the northern end of the Melrose Arch development.

Leases will be structured for a minimum of five years at a gross monthly rental of R130m² with parking bays at R500 a bay a month and annual rental escalations set at 9%.

The office buildings will integrate with the existing Melrose Arch parking basement and above-ground, open-street movement patterns, with clearly defined public and private domains. Secure private access to the office space is via lifts from the dedicated parking areas.

Street entrance lobbies provide access for visitors and there is ample visitor and unreserved parking, in addition to the dedicated bays for tenants, in the basement.

Architects and town planners DHK Architects and Boogertman and Partners Architects said readily subdivisible office buildings would have varied facades, with the newly created Piazza forming the nucleus of the new office precinct.

The architecture would continue the measured "contemporary African" expression characterised by the use of first-world and natural materials.

"The vision for the Melrose Arch to accommodate offices, retail and leisure opportunities together with the adjacent residential areas in Melrose Arch and form a genuinely integrated urban experience in a single precinct has proved farsighted, resulting in its unrelenting appeal to businesses," says Stopforth.

About 4,000 people live and work in Melrose Arch. By 2010, when all phases of the precinct are scheduled for completion, it is estimated that this will increase to more than 22,000.

Melrose Arch is owned by Southern Palace, a Property Partners and Amdec Property Developments joint venture.

Southern Palace purchased Johannesburg's Melrose Arch precinct for R1,27bn in December 2004. In April last year the owners announced its roll-out strategy through Melrose Arch Development Company.

Including offices on The Piazza, the value of property development under the company's roll-out strategy exceeds R1,5bn.

Business Day
 
Publisher: I-Net Bridge
Source: I-Net Bridge