PROPERTY developer Adam Levy is leading the drive to move back into the city. He has bought a building on the southern edge of Braamfontein to turn into luxury apartments as the first of his plans for the suburb.

THE first up-market residential development in Braamfontein is about to take shape - in an eight-storey building on the southern edge of the suburb, overlooking the city and the Nelson Mandela Bridge.

Property developer Adam Levy has bought 155 Smit Street, which has stood empty since February 2004, and has sold each floor to a separate owner, selecting each one carefully. He has taken the top one-and-a-half floors.

155 Smit Street, Braamfontein

"I want to bring people in who want to be here. I want to avoid selling to developers who won't live in the building," he says. Residents include artists, gallery owners, filmmakers and antique dealers.

Levy, originally a lawyer, says he is motivated by a driving force to get people back into the city. He prefers the title "cultural reformer" to "property developer", claiming he is more interested in the inhabitants of the spaces rather than the spaces themselves.

Each owner will have his or her own architect, and Levy hopes the creative juices will flow. Construction of the flats will start in March and take about six months. People will move into their new homes in September.

Each floor offers ample space for individual designs, consisting of a long, open space of about 30m in length and 10m in width. Both sides of the flats are filled with metal industrial windows, the north overlooking the skyscrapers of Braamfontein, the south overlooking the city.

Levy wants to develop a coffee shop and art gallery on the ground floor of the building. He will secure the building with gating and a guard, and there is parking for residents in the basement. There will also be on-street parking.

Levy has also bought the corner building at the end of the block of De Beer Street, and plans to turn it into "different office space consisting of a cultural and creative hub", with art-based tenants.

But it does not stop there: Levy is spreading his wings further in Braamfontein. Though he will not give details, he is looking to take over "a more prominent building" in the suburb, and convert it into a half-residential and half-commercial and retail venture.

Levy's aims tie in with those of Johannesburg Executive Mayor Councillor Amos Masondo. In September 2002 he announced a plan to regenerate Braamfontein, to complement the regeneration of the Old Fort complex and Newtown, creating a cultural arc running into the city.