Menlyn Maine may be replicated as land owners show some interest
Land owners show interest
MENLYN Maine Investment Holdings, the developers of the multi-billion rand Menlyn Maine mixed use precinct in Pretoria, plans to develop similar precincts in other parts of South Africa.
Henk Boogertman, the director of architecture and design at Menlyn Maine Investment Holdings, said on Friday that the company had plans to try to replicate some of the principles it had applied in Menlyn elsewhere in the country.
“We have two other opportunities, which are similar but bigger than Menlyn Maine, which is nice for us and a geographical split. It’s not all in Pretoria and Johannesburg.
“We have been approached by other land owners to come and do similar developments in their towns. We are considering two projects,” he said.
The shareholding in Menlyn Maine Investment Holdings was 56 percent owned by African Spirit Trading 306 and African Spirit Trading 309, whose shareholders include management, Absa Bank, Ice Finance and Equity Estates, 25 percent by empowerment group Kgwara Investments and 19 percent by the Government Employees Pension Fund represented by the Public Investment Corporation (PIC).
Boogertman said more than R9 billion had been invested in the precinct.
He confirmed that they aimed to complete the development of the Menlyn Maine precinct on budget in 2020, which was two years ahead of its original schedule, or at the maximum in 2021.
“In a climate of depressed or negative growth in the construction industry, Menlyn Maine is an unusual phenomenon,” he said.
The Menlyn Maine precinct comprises about 300 000m², of which 140 000m² was commercial offices.
Despite the slump in demand in the office market because of the poor economic environment, which has resulted in high office vacancy rates in most nodes, Boogertman said that they only had two remaining office buildings to build, comprising a total of 22 000m². He added that they did not have any office space vacancies at Menlyn Maine, attributing this to the mixed use of the precinct and its accessibility.
“People want to live and work here. We have 22 food outlets here, there is a gym, a place for kids to play, residential, the Gautrain bus system is here and the (Tshwane metro’s) Areyeng bus rapid transport system is coming here when the upgrade to Atterbury Road is finished.
“And then there is the liveability and walkability. People love to work here, because they just walk between the buildings. It’s flat and super safe. About 50 metres from the front door of the apartment blocks you are into the Spar,” he said.
Menlyn Maine is already home to and the headquarters of several blue chip and multinational businesses, including the PIC, BMW, Nedbank, Spaces, Sage VIP and SA Home Loans.
The precinct also includes Sun International Time Square, comprising a casino and an 8 500-seater multi-purpose arena and the 250-room fivestar Maslow hotel. It also has the 240-room five-star Capital Menlyn Maine apartment hotel and a shopping mall, while a sod turning ceremony took place on Saturday for the new R450 million specialised Pretoria Head and Neck Hospital, which was being developed by listed property group Growthpoint and Cintocare.
It will also be home to the Trilogy Collection towers, three residential apartment blocks that when completed would provide about 900 apartments.
Boogertman said these residential apartments were being developed in three phases, with the 350 unit first phase under construction and scheduled to open in October this year, with the 205 unit second phase being launched now and the 350 unit third phase in September.
Boogertman said these residential apartments comprised the 16-floor tower for the Premium Collection, the 14-floor Luxury Collection tower and the four-storey Platinum Collection block, the highest-end units.
“The prices vary from R1.3m to R17.5m. Our smallest unit is 39m², which is a studio, and the biggest unit is 350m². We are 85 percent sold out on phase one and have reservations for about 100 units in phase two, which include rented apartments,” he said.