Carlton Centre - ABSA - Vacancy Rates - Bad Buildings Programme Citichat 21 April 1999

CITICHAT No 11/99 - 21 APRIL 1999

Carlton Centre - ABSA - Vacancy Rates - Bad Buildings Programme - Waste Management

Sort of a Good News/Bad News week!

Good News is the report in the media earlier this week that the Carlton is being sold and will become a Corporate Head Office. Will be great to have the office building filling up again and that will obviously have a very positive effect on both its retail space and that of the surrounding area. Quite a couple of thousand people will move in I guess, so the impact should be marked.

Then, I believe that ABSA have approved the final design for the street-scaping around their new complex and the Inner City Section 59 Committee approved a proposal for the upgrading of a portion of Fox Street on both sides of the Carlton. All good, positive stuff.

Bad News is that the 1st February Sapoa Office Vacancy Report reflects a large increase in available A and B space in the city up from the closing figures at the end of last year of somewhere around nineteen-and-a-half percent to twentyfour-and-a-half percent. So the move from the city clearly continues. Suddenly struck me how negative just about everyone is - why do Sapoa call it an Office Vacancy Survey, why not Office Occupancy Survey? Seventy-five-and-a-half percent full sounds an awful lot better than twentyfour-and-a-half percent empty. I guess its like the glass of water being viewed as half-full or half-empty. Anyway you look at it it's still not good news (although the Carlton situation should make a positive dent in the figures when the move happens).

One of my city colleagues suggests that the continuing drain from the city is that nothing is being done on the ground, all we have is plans and planning. I dispute that because there is already a lot happening physically as covered in a couple of recent Citichats and my continued firm conviction that you can't rebuild without putting the foundations in place properly. We've made big inroads in that direction and I believe we will see the results emerging progressively during this year and 2000.

On the restructuring of the City's Waste Management System it is expected that a proposal call will go out in May. Proposals for the implementation of the Bad Buildings Programme are expected to be made by 28th May. The establishment of the Johannesburg Market Company, which will manage the informal trading situation in the city, will be completed in the next few weeks and work has started on finalising the agreements related to disposal of land whilst negotiations on setting up the markets in specific buildings is advanced. The resolutions leading to declaration of restricted street trading areas will be completed by the end of this month although the process leading to promulgation will take a further four months.The investigation into transportation has begun and implementation of the resultant programme will start in July. So it is all happening in one way or the other and the end result will undoubtedly be a city which reflects what an African city can and should be.

The fact that we are not alone in trying to resolve city related problems (why do white South Africans believe all the country's problems are unique?) is borne out by the number of international city conferences on the go over the next few months, America, Australia, the UK, France, etc etc , anyone want any info on these please let me know.

Regards