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Thanks to the determination of a
single property developer, Joburg's inner city is returning to its heyday as a 24/7 entertainment capital.
PROPERTY developer Gerald Olitzki
is moving into the fine dining, art and fashion businesses. Well, not quite,
but he is making sure there will be plenty of these things in the inner city neighbourhood
in which he hangs out.
Gerald Olitzki next to Gandhi Mall, linking the square and Marshall Street
Olitzki's efforts to convert the
Marshall Street Barracks into a large open art and restaurant mecca have been
thwarted but he hasn't been put off; instead, he's found another location,
right next door.
The derelict barracks was gutted
by fire in October 2002. Olitzki wanted to pull up the 3 000m2 tar parade
ground within the site and replace it with landscaped gardens, accommodating
emerging young artists in the space and in the intact three-storey barracks
building on the north side of the grounds.
He also wanted to restore the
rest of the site, with its classical façade, and install restaurants. But,
despite making approaches to the Department of Public Works, which owns the
building, he has been forced to make other plans.
Olitzki is most famous among
inner city aficionados for his energetic conversion of Gandhi Square, just a block from the
barracks. He took an untidy and unruly bus terminus and converted it into a
place spilling over with restaurants and coffee shops, through which some 25 000
people pass daily.
He has converted almost all the
buildings around the square into A-grade offices, all fully let.
Fox and Main streets
Not content with that, he has now moved into Fox and Main streets, leading off
the square, and is busy converting some of Fox Street into his fine dining location.
And he is converting the two blocks between Kruis and Eloff streets leading up
to the Carlton Centre, into attractive pedestrian walkways.
He is talking to a number of
popular restaurant owners - Lulu, Butcher Boy, Vida Café, Sophiatown and
Mimmo's - with a view to them taking up ground floor space, with their tables
spilling out on to the walkway.
Fanuel Motsepe's newly painted building on the corner of Fox and Von Brandis streets
"Each restaurant will have its
own seating area and flow into the landscape of the area," explains Olitzki.
There are sufficient customers in
the area, he adds, with a number of banks, in particular Absa, just a block or
two away.
Olitzki has a lease on that
section of Fox Street,
so can be a little pushy with other property owners. He has asked them to tidy
up their buildings, and they're doing so with enthusiasm.
Fanuel Motsepe's building
Architect Fanuel Motsepe of Motsepe Architects, who owns the building on the
corner of Fox and Von Brandis streets, has given the exterior of his building
an imaginative look.
He says the building is of
heritage value, dating back to the 1930s, and was owned by Boustred building
suppliers. The unusual and colourful shapes on the exterior are a copy of a
1950s Johnson & Johnson mosaic tile on the sixth floor of the building.
"We were looking for an iconic,
authentic treatment," says Motsepe. "In view of the historical value of the
building, we have taken [its] earliest remaining fabric and layered it on to
the existing environment, and created a new and vibrant environment."
He is also revamping the ground
floor restaurant, to be called Traffic Café, which will serve traditional,
indigenous food. It will spill out on to the pavement, and is expected to open
in about a month. The basement will act as a lounge, extending the opening hours
into the evenings.
Main Street
The derelict Oscar's building, to become an art gallery
In Main Street, Olitzki plans to
create an arcade between Fox and Main streets, which will exit alongside a
derelict structure he calls Oscar's building, to be called Matomo Mall.
He is talking to an international
art gallery with a view to it moving into Oscar's building. He is also talking
to an antiques dealer. The arcade will contain an atrium and restaurant.
And across the road in Main
Street, next door to the barracks, he has created two huge spaces of 1 000m2
each - one on the ground floor, one above it on the first floor. He envisages a
big brand local designer taking space on the ground floor, and on the first
floor he sees local artists taking up the space, spreading out creatively.
But Olitzki is eyeing other
buildings. He has bought an old church on the corner of Marshall and Von Brandis streets, which is
being renovated. He has thrown up a wall between the church and the vestry, and
intends converting it retail space.
"I want this thing to flow beyond
Fox Street,"
he says.
And he hasn't forgotten customer
parking. In Fox Street
there are four levels of basement parking, providing diners with 150 bays.
Below Gandhi Square
there are 100 parking bays.
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