Foreshore ‘mini-city’ to cost billions

Seven towers with hotels, apartments and shops

A GIANT, multibillion-rand minicity is set to transform Cape Town’s Foreshore, with the erection of seven new tower blocks offering apartments aimed at young professionals, shops, restaurants, offices and hotels.

The 200 000m2 development, described by acting Cape Town mayor Ian Neilson as “quite staggering”, will be called Harbour Arch, and comes with an R8 billion price tag.

The Amdec Group announced the plans yesterday, saying one of the blocks would house two new Marriott hotels, while the others would contain retail space, offices, accommodation, restaurants and motor dealership showrooms.

Neilson said the development was almost half as big as the vast V&A Waterfront, which was 500 000m2.

The Amdec Group, a South African property development company specialising in large-scale urban developments, owns the land and is the sole developer of the 5.8ha site at the confluence of the N1 and N2.

James Wilson, the group’s chief executive, said yesterday that all town planning rights were in place.

“We still have to submit our building plans. We are in the design phase with Marriott’s internal architects and our internal architects.” After the submission of plans, officials would need to check that these complied with planning rights.

Wilson said Harbour Arch would be developed using the same methods and style as Melrose Arch in Johannesburg.

“There will be a high street, lots of coffee shops and restaurants, hotels and a great deal of residential apartments at good, affordable prices for young professional people to come and live in the city,” he said.

Neilson said the city was “excited” that there were such large-scale development proposals.

“We believe that Harbour Arch, together with quite a few other developments, indicates a very strong vote of confidence in the future of Cape Town by developers.”

He added that he understood the development would include “quite a bit of residential (space)”. “It is trying to cover a slightly lower economic bracket, and will be suitable for young professionals.” Wilson said apartments would start at R1.2 million. He hoped ground could be broken in the next six to nine months, and the development be completed in 2019.

Each of the seven proposed tower blocks will be between 25m and 75m tall, or between 15 and 25 storeys.

Earlier this week Marriott International announced plans for the construction of three new hotels in Cape Town in partnership with the Amdec Group.

Wilson said two of these hotels, the 200-room Cape Town Marriott Hotel Foreshore and the 150-room Residence Inn by Marriott Cape Town Foreshore, would be housed in one of Harbour Arch’s seven tower blocks.

The third hotel would be located in another mixed- use Amdec development called the Yacht Club, near the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

The three hotels will be con- structed by Amdec and leased and managed by Marriott International.

Alex Kyriakidis, president and managing director for Marriott International in the Middle East and Africa, said the group’s three planned hotels in Cape Town and two in Johannesburg were part of a push to develop the Marriott brand in Africa.

“(In Africa) you have a pent-up demand for branded hotel projects,” he said. “And that is what is exciting us about Africa. We are concentrating on the big economies with big populations, meaning Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa, because these are the (growth) engines”.

Their strategy for expansion was, however, continent-wide.

The Cape Town city centre has seen a surge in new property investment recently, with construction worth an estimated R16bn under way, in the planning stages, or proposed. jan.cronje@inl.co.za

James Wilson, the chief executive and co-founder of the Amdec Group.