Johannesburg - Attacq plans to invest about R1 billion in new developments at Waterfall in Midrand.
Morne Wilken, the chief executive, said this week that Waterfall had the best development land in South Africa and the opening of the Mall of Africa earlier this year would be the catalyst that created momentum for the development of Waterfall City.
He said the opening of PwC Towers would accelerate this. “We have spent R1.1bn on infrastructure and we have 783 000m² that we can roll out within the next few years. That is 270 000m² of industrial land, 400 000m² of offices, 23 000m² of retail and 90 500m² of residential and hotels.”
Exposure
Wilken said the gross value of all these developments would be about R1bn. This investment was earmarked for Waterfall despite Attacq indicating it planned to increase its exposure to developed and emerging markets and reduce its exposure to South Africa.
He said Attacq had entered into joint ventures with the Zenprop Group and Barrow Properties for new developments. Wilken said Attacq would be developing a 35 000m² office park jointly with Zenprop and a mixed use development with Barrow Properties.
He said the firm was in negotiations with a number of tenants for the office park and hopefully would break ground for the first building in the next few months. Wilken said the main reason it entered into the joint venture with Barrow Properties was because of its residential expertise.
The 38 000m² mixed-use development with Barrow Properties would be located on the western side of the Mall of Africa and be Attacq’s first residential apartment project, comprising 126 apartments.
Earthworks for this development would commence in October. Wilken said Attacq had developed and let a number of speculative office buildings at Waterfall and realised there was a need for more.
He said two office buildings were planned for in front of the Mall of Africa and the basements for these two buildings were completed during the construction of the Mall of Africa.
“We have therefore already started construction on one of these buildings, which will have total lettable area of about 12 500m²,” he said.
Wilken said there was potential to develop a mall up to about 30 000m².
Attacq reported a 15.3 percent growth in adjusted net asset value a share to R21.89 for the year to June. Its compound annual growth rate in adjusted net asset value a share since inception is 29.4 percent.
Attacq shares were flat yesterday at R17.30.
BUSINESS REPORT