PRETORIA – The first high-rise residential apartments are to be built in the heart of Waterfall City at a total development cost of R1.2 billion by an equal joint venture between listed Attacq and property development company Tricolt.
Ellipse Waterfall, comprising four apartment buildings ranging in height from 10 to 15 storeys with a total of 590 apartments, is to be launched at the beginning of next month.
It will be developed in two phases and have two underground basement levels that will provide 980 parking bays.
The price of the apartments will range from R1.49 million for an executive 44m² one-bedroom unit to R12 million for a 327m² duplex penthouse with a rooftop terrace and pool.
Melt Hamman, the chief executive of Attacq, believed the majority of the 254 units of the first phase apartments would be bought by investors.
Tim Kloeck, the chief executive of Tricolt, said construction would commence once the first phase was 70 percent pre-sold, which was expected to be in March next year.
Kloeck said construction of the first phase was expected to take 18 months to complete.
Exterior perspective of the R1.2bn residential apartments that are to be built in Waterfall City by Attacq. Photo: Supplied
Giles Pendleton, the head of developments at Attacq, believed both phases would be under construction simultaneously, with the first phase completed while the second phase was being built.
Pendleton said the development of the residential apartments were part of Attacq’s overall strategy for Waterfall and the creation of a holistic city that facilitated a work, live and play lifestyle.
He said the timing of the launch of the apartments was prompted by the critical mass of the commercial property now developed in Waterfall City, which meant the other asset classes and the “live and play” component could now thrive on the critical mass already created in Waterfall.
Hamman said that by 2020 when the first phase of Ellipse Waterfall was completed, there would be about 10 000 people working in Waterfall City, including about 3 500 people in the PwC building and a similar number in the Deloitte building.
Pendleton said the greater city of Waterfall would have a day time population of 70 000 and 57 000 night time residents in all the various residential units that had been developed by affordable housing developer Calgro M3, Century Property Developments, Balwin Properties and the Attacq-Tricolt joint venture.
Exterior perspective of the R1.2bn residential apartments that are to be built in Waterfall City by Attacq. Photo: Supplied
Kloeck said Ellipse Waterfall would have a host of amenities, including the Luna Club, which comprised a wellness centre with a gymnasium, spa and sauna facilities, a business centre with a boardroom and conference facility, lounge and bar area, coffee bar and children’s playroom.
It would also have a lap pool, leisure pool, gas braai facilities, a 1km fitness track with pull-up bars and different types of outdoor exercise machinery.
Pendleton said Attacq and Tricolt both had a vision that Allipse Waterfall to a degree was going to be “an urban oasis” with a resort style podium.
He said the orientation and laying out of the four towers was not random.
“There is a logic to why they are at certain angles due to sun studies and view corridors,” he said.
Pendleton added they had built a full scale mock-up of two-bedroom unit with furniture in the parking area at the Mall of Africa so people did not have to imagine what the apartments looked like from a 2D-drawing on a piece of paper.