New focus planned for Expo Centre
IT’S a popular music and sporting venue. And now there are big plans to turn FNB Stadium’s 420-hectare neighbour, the Johannesburg Expo Centre, into the city’s own Universal Studios movie set.
Management of the centre, established in 2006, plan on renaming it, too.
Craig Newman, its owner, says the centre is perceived as the venue for the annual Rand Show, particularly among older visitors.
“The centre is now widely used by many people and has become known as a music and sporting venue.
“The focus has changed completely. The new generation flocks there for the many concerts we hold each year and that is why we are now looking at giving the Expo Centre a new name to get rid of the old stigma attached to the Witwatersrand Agricultural Society, which started the Rand Show exhibition in 1895,” Newman explains.
Around R100 million has been spent on upgrades and renovations to the centre. Newman says it’s being transformed into a “Universal Studios” movie set, as several adverts and films, including
were shot on the premises.
The plan is to transform the centre into a film-making hub complete with film and theatre schools, a five-star hotel for movie stars and administrative space for film-makers.
This is important for Soweto residents and surrounding areas as the new space will be a hub for job creation and skills development.
The City of Johannesburg, together with provincial and national government – which spent R113m on upgrading the region for the 2010 Fifa World Cup, are planning a massive revamp including a “smart city precinct” for information and communication technology and media industries.
A national sports complex is being planned close to the FNB Stadium, which will become a regional, high-intensity sports hub including a higher-performance, training and development centre serving a local regional and national functions. It will also accommodate headquarters for sporting bodies such as the Olympics committee, netball and hockey associations.
Herman Pienaar, director of the city’s development planning, transformation and spatial planning department, says it’s negotiating with an international bank to set up its head office in the area.
“Within 10 years, it’s envisaged that all major land areas in the mining belt surrounding Nasrec, which, during apartheid, served as a barrier between the city, Roodepoort and Soweto, will become suitable for development once the mine dumps reclamation processes are complete.”