Construction of the first office block at 35 000 square metre The Estuaries office park  at Century City is underway with work on at least a further 10 buildings expected to start shortly.

The 18 commercial sites in The Estuaries, which is expected to attract total development of more than R500m, were sold to owner occupiers, developers and investors within 24 hours of being launched late last year and the sites have now been serviced and transferred to purchasers.

Already 10 plans for office blocks have been submitted to the Century City Design Review Committee and to date half have been approved paving the way for developers to submit plans to Council.

Greg Deans, managing director of Century City Property Developments (Pty) Ltd in which the Rabie Property Group is the major shareholder, said Rabie would be developing two of the sites themselves. In fact, work on the first two-storey block, an 800 square metre corporate office on basement parking and designed by Vivid Architects, was already underway and due for completion in March next year.

He said design work on a second office block, a 4260 square metre building on a high profile site fronting Century City’s main boulevard and situated opposite Liberty Life’s new regional headquarters, was also well advanced.

The R64m building, he said, will provide semi basement parking at a ratio of four bays per 100 square metres and three levels of offices which will be available for rental or developed to the needs of an owner occupier...

Rabie commercial sales and letting manager, Giles Balmer said they were negotiating with a potential purchaser interested in taking up the whole building.

He said a number of developers had been among purchasers and they would be bringing buildings to the market either for sale or to let on a staggered basis over the next two years.

The 18 buildings to be developed at The Estuaries will range from 800 square metres to 4620 square metres but smaller sectional title units ranging from 200 square metres would also be available for sale or to let, he said.

Among those who have had their plans approved recently are Gorrie & Findlay who are planning four office blocks, designed by MLH Architects, on different sites within the precinct.

James Gorrie said they extremely bullish about the commercial property market and the Century City office market in particular. He said they would be developing the four blocks on a staggered basis and were ready to submit plans to Council for the first 1100 square metre building,  and  hoped to move on site by September, Negotiations for half the space to a potential purchaser were close to finalization, he said.

Stephen Brand, a director of engineering group De Vos Paxton which is undertaking the development of an 1800 square metre office in a joint venture with Plan Trust, have also had their plans approved and plan to move on site shortly.

Their building, block, which has been designed by Century City=based architects, Maas & Coetzee, overlooks a landscaped park with a formal water feature. It is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2007.

A restaurant is to be built in the park to service the needs of the estimated 2000 office workers who will be based at The Estuaries.

Deans said design guidelines were in place for the two and three-storey buildings in the development to ensure compatibility and a respect for the development as a whole.

Internal roads in the development, which will have two access controlled entrance gates, are brick paved and patterned with cobbles with landscaping of the verges now being undertaken.
 

For further information please phone Giles Balmer on 021 550 7000 or 0834570628.