By Max Matavire

It is not all doom and gloom for Port Elizabeth‘s Central, as evidenced by the recent steady increase in property upgrading and investment, says Mandela Bay Development Agency chief executive Pierre Voges.

Speaking to business people, potential investors and residents at the official opening at the weekend of a new R2-million business and leisure complex in Parliament Street, Voges warned investors that those still sitting on the fence would regret it in the near future.

He announced the R10-million upgrading of Parliament Street, which will commence in September, as part of the MBDA urban renewal master plan which has already seen Govan Mbeki Avenue made more pedestrian friendly.

Although Parliament Street will not be turned into a mall, trees will be planted along the street, there will be increased lighting and sections of the street will be paved.

“We have some funding from the treasury to develop Parliament Street from Lawrence Street to Rink Street. We will be calling for design concepts soon and work should start between September and October,” said Voges.

“People must start investing there now, because in two years they will regret not having done so earlier as a property boom is anticipated,” he said.

The business complex is owned by Colin Dilland, an English businessman who came to Port Elizabeth in 1995 on a two-year contract as a financial director of an American company, but decided to make the city his home after enjoying everything it offered.

It comprises a former church which Dilland renovated and converted into a 100-seater conference centre with a big screen, a restaurant called the Spotted Cow, an alfresco dining area and a three-floor nightclub.

Dilland said there had been great improvement in the past few months in safety and security. “I am confident it will not be long before many other business people realise that the vibe is back in Central and that there is so much to offer,” he said.

Voges said merely upgrading Parliament Street would chase drug lords away as the environment would be too clean and transparent for them to operate.

He also said they would soon be constructing an escalator from Chapel Street down to Govan Mbeki Avenue to replace the current stairway used by people.

“The parking bays which we lost in Govan Mbeki we recovered in Chapel Street. People will park their cars in Chapel Street and go on the escalator to Govan Mbeki Avenue,” he said.

Eastern Province Herald