Cape Town - Bellville has been touted as Cape Town’s next economic hub, and long-term transport plans such as the Bellville-Airport rail link and the proposed MyCiTi trunk route will enhance the regeneration of this area.
And there are plans to transform Bellville’s Kruskal Road into the next St George’s Mall, said Derek Bock, chief operations officer of the Voortrekker Road Corridor Improvement District (VRCID).
While it is arguably the largest special rating’s area in the country, VRCID has managed to reinvigorate this vital economic node with a quarter of the R14 million budget allocated to some of the other suburbs.
In operation for three years, the work of the VRCID is starting to pay off as property developers and businesses have shown renewed interest in the area, said Bock.
Before the VRCID was formed, city officials told Hardus Zevenster, owner of Radio Tygerberg, that it would be impossible to turns things around. The area was plagued by petty crime and vagrancy.
“I looked out of my window (of the Radio Tygerberg building on the corner of Fairfield and Williams streets in Parow) and it was filthy. Now it is clean and safe and my people can come to work.”
Zevenster got together with Piet Badenhorst and Gert Snyman and considered the feasibility of setting up a city improvement district, similar to the one set up in Cape Town in 2000.
The VRCID was set up in 2012 to provide top-up safety and cleansing services to the Parow and Bellville areas, and is now one of 12 nodes in the mayor’s urban regeneration programme.
“It’s been three years and we are not quite there yet, but what we have achieved is amazing.”
Zevenster said petty crime had dropped noticeably in the past three years, and the work of a dedicated social worker in collaboration with NGOs in the area has helped with the social welfare issues.
“It is still a miracle to me what we have achieved in such a big area with so few resources.”
The VRCID, now three years in operation, has a budget of R14m, compared with the R44m allocated to the Central City Improvement District. It spans about eight kilometres and includes three subcouncils within its boundaries. It passes through the Bellville and Parow CBDs and include Durban Road from Voortrekker Road to the N1.
Zevenster said he had noticed the downward spiral of development in 2010, but since the formation of the VRCID, large corporates have opted to keep their headquarters in the area. The Foschini Group invested R300m in their head office, and Sanlam has maintained a significant footprint with its massive head office in Bellville.
In 2011, commercial properties in the Voortrekker Corridor area were valued at R5.8 billion.
“There are some other investments on the table. Property values are up and there are huge opportunities for developers,” said Zevenster.
In First Avenue in Boston, older properties have been snapped up for business use in the past three years. While Parow is still the domain of the car dealership, Bellville’s proximity to public transport makes it a vibrant retail hub.
During a site visit of Parow and Bellville, Bock made the bold statement that “Voortrekker Road is probably safer now than Long Street”.
Bock was instrumental in helping with the revitalisation of the Cape Town city centre when he worked with the Central City Improvement District, and he has applied the same no-nonsense approach to Voortrekker Road and its surrounding areas.
There’s visible policing and regular patrols by the security team. Bock said the unit is bolstered by the two full-time law enforcement officers who form part of the City of Cape Town’s rent-a-cop scheme.
While property developers are showing renewed interest in the area, Bock said there are still slum landlords who take little interest in their buildings.
“We have identified all such landlords and, together with the city’s problem building unit, we will clamp down on these landlords. They can’t blame their tenants for the state of the buildings.”
The VRCID has also taken over the management of seven parking areas on behalf of the city for a five-year period. These will be fenced off and secured with boom access. Motorists would have to pay for parking, but the tariffs would be considerably lower than in other CBDs.
It would also be the first time the city would be able to generate an income from these public parking space.
Bock said the city should look at setting up a dedicated Voortrekker Road Corridor task team of officials to look at redeveloping the area.
Marvan van Zyl is one of the business owners who opted to stay despite the downturn of a few years ago. The car dealership has been in the area since 1957.
“There has been a definite improvement in the area since the VRCID came in,” he said.
Property development in the past three years:
* The Foschini Group has invested R300 million in the upgrade of its head office.
* New Property Ventures has invested R40m in a new parking garage.
* Spar has upgraded and extended its properties.
* The Karl Bremer Office Block is the first project in Africa to get a socio-economic category rating as part of its five-star Green Star rating. The previous building that stood on the Karl Bremer Hospital site has been demolished and the new offices under construction will be ready by next year.
Cape Argus