Johannesburg - Waterfall City, the mixed-use commercial development in Midrand that is being developed by listed capital growth fund Attacq, is increasingly being regarded as the new inbound headquarter destination for many international corporate firms seeking a foothold in Gauteng.
Morne Wilken, the chief executive of Attacq, said on Tuesday many corporates were also consolidating at Waterfall City, adding it made sense in tough times for corporates with three or four buildings in Pretoria and Johannesburg to consolidate at a single site such as Waterfall City.
Wilken said consolidation resulted in cost savings, such as security costs, but a survey conducted by Attacq among its corporate tenants about the reasons why they had relocated to Waterfall City revealed that the big driver was its central location. He said a number of corporates had already committed to Waterfall, including Massmart, PwC, Novartis, Cummins, Schneider, Cipla, Honda, Cell C, Group Five, Premier Foods, Covidien, Westcon, Altech and Servest.
Projects
About 30 projects at Waterfall have already been secured worth more than R9.87 billion that in total will provide more than 473 970m2 of gross lettable area. These projects comprise commercial offices, distribution centres and retail that have either been completed, are under construction or construction is about to commence.
Waterfall City will be anchored by the 131 000m2 Mall of Africa, which has an estimated completion value of R4.5bn.
Attacq owns 80 percent of the Mall of Africa and Atterbury Property Holdings, Attacq’s appointed developer, the remaining 20 percent.
Wilken said the construction of the mall, “the commercial jewel in the crown”, was on budget and scheduled to open in April.
He said the Mall of Africa was the largest single-phase mall constructed in South Africa and on completion would be the fourth-largest retail mall in South Africa behind Gateway in Umhlanga, Century City in Cape Town and Sandton City.
Wilken said a new bridge over the N1 would open at the same time as the Mall of Africa and link developments at Waterfall that were on both sides of the highway.
Residential
He said the anchor tenants in the Mall of Africa would be Woolworths, Edgars, Checkers, Game and Dischem and most of the available space in the mall had been finalised. The mall will also have seven Ster-Kinekor cinema theatres.
Attacq Waterfall Investment Company (AWIC) holds the development rights to Waterfall City and is wholly owned by Attacq. Atterbury Property Developments is responsible for co-ordinating this commercial real estate project for and on behalf of AWIC.
Attacq secured the development rights for a total of 1.78 million square metres at Waterfall on a 99-year lease from the Islamic Institute, which has owned the land since 1934 but cannot sell it in terms of Islamic law. Wilken said Waterfall provided Attacq with a 15-year development pipeline.
The bulk of the residential development at Waterfall is being done by Century City, which secured most of the development rights for residential within Waterfall.
However, Wilken said Attacq would also do some residential development within Waterfall City.
“We’re still playing around with the numbers (of residential) but we need to make the city work in terms of work, live and play and don’t want a city centre that is dead at night. But we can’t say how many units yet,” he said.