The corporation confirmed yesterday it had put out tenders for the construction of its first retail complex, which would include banks and medical services, while saying tenders for building a new manufacturing facility in Uitenhage had also been invited.

The contract for the Uitenhage- based Mandela Bay Supplier Park indicates a new collaboration between the CDC and the park.

Uitenhage and Despatch Development Initiative (UDDI) chief executive officer Nomkhita Mona said phase one of the park, which had fallen under their ambit before, had been running at optimal level, and in order to expand and grow, needed to be optimally managed. The CDC would therefore take over the operational running, she said.

“The park has always been one of the flagship projects of the UDDI, but it has also been the municipality‘s project. Our focus was initiating it and getting it off the ground.”

Mona said the CDC would be managing the running of the park, but there were still several areas where the two bodies would be working together and exploring synergies.

CDC spokesman Ongama Mtimka said: “There are strategic synergies between the logistics park and the Coega industrial development zone, so much so that there needed to be much more integration between the two, both from a strategic and operational point of view.

“The projects are to a large extent complementary to one another especially given the fact that there is a zone dedicated to the automotive sector in the Coega IDZ. Therefore both CDC and the metro saw it necessary that there be more collaboration between the park and the CIDZ,” he said.

He however said negotiations were ongoing as to how this relationship would work in the future.

The CDC has meanwhile advertised the tender for a factory at the Mandela Bay Supplier Park, to be purpose-built for a specific investor who had already signed an agreement with the CDC.

“That investor, however cannot be mentioned publicly yet,” Mtimka said.

He said the 30 000m² facility would consist of two components – a civil contract which would last around two and a half months and the commercial development or top structure. The project would provide 60 construction jobs, he said.

Mtimka could not disclose the value of the project because of the “sensitivity of the tendering processes”.

The zone three retail facility would be one of a few planned for the Coega industrial development zone, and this one would particularly serve zones three and four, Mtimka said.

Two facilities, one of 2 563m² metres and another of 1 076m² , would be built to service companies like Dynamic Commodities, Accoustex, Biomass and Coega Human Capital Solutions.

“The retail development is one of many which the CDC seeks to build in various zones in the IDZ except for areas designated for heavy industrial activity . . . The closest area which has such services is Bluewater Bay and Motherwell to a limited extent. The facility will have food/catering, banking, laundry, post services, pharmacies, optometrists and doctors.”

Around 200 construction jobs would be created in the building of the upmarket facility, Mtimka said. However he could not give numbers of jobs that would be created once the retail centre was operational.

He said construction would commence in January and was expected to be completed within eight months.

The Herald