Nick Wilson

Property Correspondent

A LARGE fashion district, which could see private-sector investment of R500m, is planned for the eastern side of Johannesburg’s central business district (CBD).

The eastern side of the CBD has not seen much redevelopment compared with the west, which includes Newtown and the financial district.

The City of Jo’burg Property Company (JPC), the property arm of the City of Johannesburg, and the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) plan to kick-start the development with a square to be known as Fashion Capital, which will include an outdoor fashion ramp, restaurants and retail space, at a cost of just more than R24m.

JPC project manager Alan Dinnie describes the proposed district as a “catalytic project”.

The concept was initiated by the JDA. “It is about building on the success we’ve had with the redevelopment of Newtown.”

The proposed fashion district will be in an area incorporating 26 city blocks between Jeppe, End, Commissioner and Von Weilligh streets. Dinnie says this area was the old centre of Johannesburg’s old clothing industry, which started declining in the 1990s.

He says this was due to a general decline in the clothing industry in SA and in Johannesburg in particular, because of imports.

But he says the area still has a lot of fashion-related businesses.

“We did a survey of the area, and found more than 100 fashion-related businesses. The whole area is dominated by budget clothing retail, and this fits well. There are haberdashery shops, milliners, fabric dyers, sowing-machine repair shops and maintenance shops.”

There are more than 100 cut, make and trim operators such as tailors and seamstresses. Dinnie said a lot of these operators were left “destitute” by a declining industry, but are still clustered together in various buildings and producing clothing and fashion-related items. “The whole vision is to build on that and consolidate a fashion district.”

The JPC has considered three main thrusts for the redevelopment of the old fashion district. One of these involves the JDA setting up the Fashion District Institute, which will pursue the vision of creating a fashion district.

“This institute has been set up and has been operational for about a year.”

A second issue is that the JPC does not own any property there.

Dinnie says the upgrading of the greater area is “obviously” going to have to be a private sector-led initiative. “The strategy is to try to get developers and investors interested in the area.”

Last year the core area for investment was identified and buildings earmarked for redevelopment to guide developers. “We produced a prospectus on the buildings, and we have met with some success. To date three buildings in the core area have been bought by developers who are looking to invest in line with the vision of a fashion district.” The third thrust focuses on the best way to attract private investment. The JPC realised the best way to do so was by having public-sector investment.

Dinnie says this was why JPC decided to develop the fashion square or Fashion Capital.

To create the square the City of Johannesburg has acquired properties in the centre of the district on the corner of Pritchard and Polly streets. Three properties have been acquired by the city and the JPC has developed a design for them.

“We have found it to be a vibrant part of the city, and it is quite crowded. There is very little room for pauses and open space. What we essentially wanted to do was to create a public square.” This would give people a destination, an area to pause, as well as a focus to the district,” he says.

“We’ve planned for retail space around the square to activate it. We are busy tweaking our tenant mix for retail. The vision is for proudly South African fashion-related products.”

The JPC plans to provide about 3000m² of retail space. Although the JPC and JDA will develop the space, they will give a head lease to the Fashion District Institute to manage the square and retail on behalf of the JPC.

Restaurant premises have also been in allocated in the plan for fashion square.

“We have also planned a permanent outdoor fashion ramp, which we see as a permanent platform for designers from the district. The idea is for visitors to be able to come into the fashion district every weekend. They can sit at a good restaurant and watch fashion shows by local designers and use it as a base to explore the rest of the area.”

Dinnie says the JPC is trying to complete the square, retail and restaurant offering by the end of the year.

But the JPC also hopes to hold an event at the square during SA’s annual fashion week in July.

The cost of the district, which includes the square, retail property and restaurant development, is just more than R24m.

Looking at the fashion district as a whole, Dinnie says there are about 16 buildings in the core area of the fashion district.

“If you look at a conservative investment of R10m in each building by the private sector, that is R160m.”

The medium- to long-term investment in the area by the private sector will be at least R500m.

Fashion District Institute executive director Chantal Collet says they have created a voluntary central improvement district but are setting up a formal central improvement district for services such as security.

“We are providing cleaning services and security as well as doing local development in the area,” she says.