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The derelict - but historically important - Potato Shed and Transport House in Newtown will be saved. Plans include a mall, a hotel, offices, apartments and an open square.
The Potato Shed now
ARTS, culture and heritage will merge with modern-day living and shopping in two massive new Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) projects in Newtown.
One of these, the 1912 Potato Shed, has been derelict and forgotten for almost 30 years but is finally getting a new lease on life. Newtown Junction, as it will be called, will bring the first 21st century mall and four-star City Lodge to the precinct.
The 2ha plot behind Museum Africa will offer flea market and retail shopping, offices, a 180-room hotel and a beautiful open public square. The entertainment sector will also benefit, with additional facilities for the Market Theatre, including parking for 700 cars.
More importantly, the building design will be connected to Museum Africa through a special walkway, bringing more feet to the museum.
"Specific emphasis is placed on the interaction with the museum and a link through to Mary Fitzgerald Square, thus creating a very important and much-needed link to the north of Newtown," confirms Coenie Bezuidenhout, a director at Atterbury Property Developments, the project developers.
Bezuidenhout says the idea is to focus strongly on the arts and in this his company is working closely with the City's department of heritage, arts and culture.
The whole idea is for the emphasis to remain on Newtown as a cultural precinct, adds JDA's chief executive officer, Lael Bethlehem.
"The City is also working hard to support cultural heritage and the development must not detract from the cultural nature of the precinct. It has to enhance it."
Heritage site
New will be combined with old by incorporating a major portion of the existing Potato Shed structure into the design, Bezuidenhout says.
The conceptual design for the Borough Market
The shed is just four years shy of a century old and, in keeping with its heritage status, Atterbury will have to bring the existing structure into the plan, keeping the original roof trusses and iron work found on site.
Once final layouts have been approved by all the relevant parties the design will be released to the public. Bezuidenhout says "it is going to be quite exciting".
The structure and railway sidings which can all still be seen today are collectively referred to as the Potato Sheds and consist of a number of phased historic developments that took place over an extended period of time.
The railway sidings were critical to the daily operation and function of the whole market area and influenced the plan form of the Potato Shed as we see it today.
"What you look at when you stand there today is a collection of historic layers added to the original open shed," confirms Johann Bruwer, a heritage consultant who, together with the conservation architect, William Martinson, was appointed by Atterbury to do the heritage impact assessment report.
It has to be developed in terms of current heritage legislation. The heritage impact assessment report will be made available to the public for comment for 30 days before it goes to the South African Heritage Resources Agency for approval.
Bruwer says the site is of phenomenal importance but that development is nonetheless "badly needed".
The name, Newtown Junction, is also a reminder of those old days, referring to the historical link with the old railway sidings and the junction of development with the main access routes.
Newtown today
The Newtown of the turn of the century may be nothing like the Newtown of today but it remains a favourite hub for Joburg residents. First the commercial centre of Johannesburg, today Newtown is undoubtedly its cultural heart.
The first market sheds were completed in 1912 and started operating in 1913. The market, which today houses Museum Africa and the Market Theatre - which was then the old Indian Food Market - were the public face of the Johannesburg Municipal Fresh Product Market.
By the early 1960s, some 2 000 tons of fresh produce was moving through the market every day.
Once completed in 2010, the new development will bring a new commercial flavour to the precinct, this time in the form of a retail shopping centre trading in 21st century products in a 21st century environment.
And despite a worldwide economic downturn, there has been a huge response from businesses keen to return to the central business district. National retailers in food, fashion and lifestyle have shown interest in the mall component, says Bezuidenhout.
"Almost all of the property is already prescribed." Newtown Junction is bounded by Carr, Miriam Makeba and Henry Nxumalo streets. The project will begin in June or July this year.
Transport House
Further along, driving in a southerly direction along Henry Nxumalo Street, is the old Transport House, a similarly dilapidated structure with a very unimaginative façade reminiscent of old apartheid architecture.
This structure will also be revamped into a mixed-use development at an estimated cost of R400-million, confirms Kaylon Karrim of Ilangabi Property Developers.
Emphasis will be placed on social open spaces, with an amphitheatre and a health and fitness centre central to the design. The leisure component will be complemented with retail, office space and loft-style apartments to tie in with a design which hopes to cater for everyone "under one roof".
"The design is a new concept in leisure, working towards self-actualisation within a ‘live-work-play' environment," he says.
The project will kick off with the construction of a six-floor boutique hotel which will be ready by 2010. As this is also a heritage building, the original façade will be kept and incorporated into the design.
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