Upgrading 2 Citichat 12 September 2008

CITICHAT 36/2008 - 12 September 2008


Inner City Upgrading Grows Apace – 2

Picking up from where we left off last week and starting on the west side of the inner city at Pageview, Vrededorp and Fordsburg. A professional team has been appointed and is currently finalising the urban design framework which will be followed by a modest public environment upgrading. I know the folk in these areas have been quite concerned that they were being left out of the City’s plan, so am sure that they are delighted at the potential progress. The work is planned to be completed by 30th June 2009. The work should also include some public artwork firstly to the railway bridge ‘gateway’ from Fordsburg to Fietas and then the reinstatement of the heritage plaques in the Fietas area.

In fact there is a budget of some millions for the year ending June 2008 for additional public art through the inner city.

On the northwest corner of Bree and Quinn Streets, the refurbishment of a group of fascinating old buildings into a mixed use development of 3 600 square metres to be known as ‘Newtown Quarter’ is looking good The project has a courtyard and will be ideal for various types of eating establishments. It will substantially and positively impact on the area.

I have been assured that the deal on Transport House is now signed and sealed – I think the process has taken over two years – one would think that the City’s property company would understand the cyclical nature of the industry and try to be more expeditious once a deal has been done. At last, after many years of visual decay, illegal squatting and vandalism, this building will start to positively re-inforce the area instead of blighting it. I believe plans include an hotel, residential accommodation and retail.

Diagonally opposite Transport House, the new R4 million home for ‘Moving into Dance’ is well underway after a delay caused by snags with the foundation piling. This is a great advance for both the organisation and Newtown as it will replace the temporary buildings that the organisation has worked out of for many years. The large tract of land that this building is part of, Central Place, already houses No. 1 Central Place, home to Kaya FM and the Gauteng Tourism Authority; the Workers’ Library and Museum, Sci Bono and the Blue IQ offices. The likelihood is that the latter, another temporary structure, will be demolished to make way for a building or structure that will add to Newtown’s entertainment and cultural offering. The balance of the site was offered to developers some years back and submissions received included some high rise apartment buildings, commercial space, retail and recreation development. The Heritage authorities were unhappy, particularly with the high-rise developments, as they destroyed the historic industrial feel of Newtown and a long, long period of negotiations was entered into to clarify the situation. So long that the economic cycle changed and the original development proposals were not pursued. Fresh proposals were called for in the past few months and, although some response was received, interest in that particular area appears to have waned temporarily given the current economic climate. It again underlines the necessity for public authorities to work a lot faster than they have become used to!

Carr Street, the street that runs at right angles to the Nelson Mandela Bridge in a westerly direction is to be upgraded starting in October this year. The area between Carr Street and Museum Africa looks set for a huge development including an hotel and a major retail initiative. This will substantially change the nature of the area to the better if it proceeds.

A budget has been approved for the refurbishment of The Workers Museum, design work is already underway and the on-site work will start this year for completion by end April 2009. The extension to the Sci Bono technology centre is really moving at a rapid rate and one can see the new components of auditorium and other uses quite clearly. Another restoration that is about to begin is that to Kippies, once in danger of being demolished. The beautiful historic Park Station building still stands neglected although the Inner City Charter called for progress with an alternative use to be developed by June 2008.

I have always felt that one of the negatives of entering Newtown from the north is that you drive over the iconic Nelson Mandela Bridge and are greeted on your left by a messy informal taxi rank with accompanying informal activities. I remember some years ago taking a bus load of folk on an inner city tour and there was a gigantic pile of sheep and cow heads attracting thousands of flies and heaven knows what besides. This space desperately needs to be cleaned up. In the macro plan of things it was hoped that it would form part of the proposed International Transit and Shopping Centre (ITSC) where long distance taxis and buses would be accommodated in a huge structure which would also cater for appropriate trading directed to the cross border trade. It would also form the base for a number of residential and commercial blocks. Originally this was to be in part completed by 2010. No more. In the medium to long term the property (currently owned by Transnet) will probably not be taken over by the city as Transnet appear to be in talks with PIC in relationship to the future ownership of the site. In the short term there is an opportunity for the site to be leased to the City to accommodate the ever-growing number of cross-border buses and taxis that have absolutely no official ranking facilities elsewhere in the city. So every time they find an open piece of land in lower Braamfontein to rank on, they get chased away! I think the City has got entirely the wrong approach. This isn’t a bus and taxi ranking problem, it is an economic opportunity that will be lost to the City if they don’t do something appropriate and quickly too. The cross border business brings in a revenue of nearly R20 billion a year for the city! We should be falling over ourselves to suitably accommodate and manage them.

The other initiative that the City should be looking at is the creation of a suitable “Gateway” into Newtown at the foot of the Nelson Mandela Bridge.

I recently went to visit a friend whose business has taken offices in the commercial area of Turbine Hall and I continue to be whacked by the great expanse that this project has produced and the airy wonderful space that the private offices ie apart from Anglo Gold Ashanti, offer. The good news about the geographic area in which the building is located, which has seen a great deal of activity recently in institutional purchases, is that a major urban upgrade of Diagonal Street is now no longer on the ‘wish list’ but will in fact be completed by June next year. Urban designers have been appointed and are already underway.

Moving to Ferreirasdorp, Marshalltown, south of Newtown, the Johannesburg Land Company’s new office building for Zurich Re grows daily and will have a major impact on this rather neglected area west of the Magistrates Court. It will certainly act as a catalyst for more development in the area although we still seem to be making no progress with the adjacent Chinatown upgrade.

As mentioned last week Market and Commissioner are about to be torn up to provide the dedicated lanes for the BRT and their stations. There still is no real news about Beyers Naude Square or the Rissik Street Post Office other than what I recently provided But good news again is that the Oppenheimer Gardens will be cleaned up and landscaped as it forms part of the Retail Improvement District’s exciting plans for this central area of the city. There is also some othe good news about this area, but I’ll hold it till later.

The Fashion District is entering its final stage of construction and more street upgrading in the area has been approved.

I received a notice of the selling of residential units in the ‘new’ Colosseum on the corner of Commissioner and Kruis Street. This site has a really interesting history previously being the site of the Colosseum theatre built in 1933. A couple of stories regarding the original building, its demolition and even rebuilding as an office block before its current conversion to residential, bear telling, but let’s leave that for a future date. Suffice it so quote Clive Chipkin (Joburg Style) in regard to the interior of the theatre: “The Gothic fantasy of the interior was the work of the architect-artist William M. Timlin, whose susceptibilities to a dream world of his own creation were so pronounced that we may regard them as a distinct form of disengagement from the world of monetary and political crisis outside.”

Let’s see, then there is the upgrading to the Yeoville Recreation Centre the cleaning up of Pullingerkop, the establishment of the Ekhaya Neighbourhood Park in Hillbrow, the partial reconstruction of the Governor’s House opposite the Fort (badly damaged by fire); the reconstruction of the Quartz Street Market in Hillbrow; additional work in Bertrams and the Hillbrow Health Precinct and substantial public environment upgrading in Greater Doornfontein.

All proof of the headline over the past two weeks “Inner City Upgrading grows Apace”!

Enjoy the weekend, regards, neil