Waterfall Estate project to transform face of Midrand

Published Apr 11, 2014

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Roy Cokayne

The Waterfall Estate in Midrand, which the developers claim is the largest property development in the country’s history, will have an estimated positive economic impact valued at about R106 billion by the time it is completed in 2023.

Willie Vos, the chief executive of the Waterfall Management and Operating Company, said yesterday this was the finding of a study done by Urban Studies.

Waterfall Estate is located midway between Johannesburg and Pretoria on a 2 200-hectare tract of land between Woodmead, Kyalami and Midrand.

Vos said there were currently 15 000 people working on the various construction sites across the estate and by the time it was fully operational, about 95 000 jobs would have been created.

An estimated 60 000 permanent jobs would have been created once the estate was completed, including the people working in the various offices and developments, he said.

Between 6 000 and 8 000 residential units, which will house an estimated 35 000 to 40 000 people, are in the process of being developed in six residential areas within the estate.

Vos said that the total value of the houses already completed in the estate, largely by Century Developments and including the value of the land, was R4bn.

Atterbury Property Development secured the retail and commercial rights plus a small component of high-end residential in the estate.

“In today’s terms, our estimate is that the total construction value of this development is R71.2bn, including Atterbury and Century and everything that will happen here by 2022/23.

“But there is a 1.5 multiplier effect because of what is happening here and investments around here in other industries, which means the economic impact of this development amounts to R106bn in today’s terms,” he said.

Vos said the value of the retail and commercial development in the estate that had either already been completed or was under construction amounted to about R6bn, of which the 116 000m2 Mall of Africa accounted for R3.6bn.

He said the Mall of Africa was scheduled to open in March 2016 and was set to change the face of the Midrand area because it was larger than Cape Town’s Victoria & Alfred Waterfront and would rival Sandton City in size.

The estate will have a total of about 7 850 residential units and 3 068 sites were already fully serviced and 1 463 houses completed.

Vos said apart from the housing, retail and commercial components, there was also a 120-bed Netcare Hospital in the estate that was being expanded by another 80 beds, with plans finalised to expand it further to a 300-bed facility.

He said the Reddam House School already had 1 200 pupils up to Grade 11 and negotiations were ongoing with listed education firms to build at least another six schools, comprising primary and secondary schools, in the estate.

Vos said the whole idea of Waterfall Estate was to create an integrated development in which people felt they were able to live, play and work. It is an integrated development.

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