This month Santhurie Naidoo, the inner city progamme manager, looks at public art and open spaces, two new linear markets, stepping up by-law enforcement, and critical interventions by the private sector.
THREE critical interventions by the private sector, Afhco Holdings (The Affordable Housing Company), Olitzki Property Holdings (OPH) and Connaught Properties, are in the spotlight this month.
Largest residential developer
Afhco is the largest developer of residential units in the inner city and is jointly owned by brothers Wayne and Renney Plit (50 percent combined) and Old Mutual (50 percent). The brothers are very passionate about inner city residential development and committed to the regeneration of the inner city.
Wayne and Renney Plit
Wayne Plit nostalgically remembers growing up in Johannesburg and walking the streets of the central business district since he was six years old. He recalls taking a bus or riding a bicycle into town.
“The Carlton Centre was very exciting. You could buy anything there. There were games rooms; you could buy sweets. It was an inspirational place. It was very First World, but it was not representative,” he recalls. Plit says he used to go to Hillbrow to play chess and backgammon and was a regular customer of the Hillbrow Milky Lane.
Plit was an entrepreneur from an early age, having owned a business in panel beating. He saw the city changing and the demographics completely shifting. In 1994 he joined his brother in new housing projects. Afhco’s first project, started in 1994 was the Ansteys Building which cost R7-million to refurbish into the beautiful building it is today.
In 2001 Renney Plit, his older brother, joined the company. Renney is a chartered accountant and has been in property for many years. Since then, the Plit duo has been unstoppable. Afhco has been turning mostly old, commercial buildings into affordable, attractive and safe accommodation in the inner city. Just what the inner city needs!
Today Afhco owns 100 buildings, 64 of which are located in the inner city. The Afhco team consists of a team of 314 talented and dedicated staff members, almost all of which have been with Afhco since the beginning.
Twenty years
Although Olitzki Property Holdings has been regenerating the inner city for the last 20 years, the company’s director Gerald Olitzki has been working in the inner city since he completed his Articles in the early 1970’s. OPH is well-known for converting the old VanderBijl Square – then a run-down crime and grime infested area - into what is today known as the well-managed and well-maintained Gandhi Square.
Gerald Olitzki has been in the inner city for 20 years
Olitzki said that he “watched how the city deteriorated, which was not unusual as cities go through a life-cycle, but the additional factor was the fall of apartheid. People were threatened, and fled to Sandton where they surrounded themselves by European, Italian and French architecture, abandoning their inner city buildings. This left a vacuum in the inner city, drawing in criminals.”
This was seen as a challenge to Olitzki. He saw opportunity, recognised economic viability and realised that the inner city needed intensive revitalisation. He began buying buildings in Marshalltown which he refurbished on a block-by-block basis. OPH also agreed to manage Gandhi Square on behalf of the city through a long-term lease, declaring the square a no-trading zone with the intention of maintaining a sustainable and aesthetically appealing public space.
Maintaining the momentum of the upgraded Gandhi Square, Olitzki had a bold vision of revitalising Main Street. He approached all the building owners on Main Street - the Johannesburg Land Company, banks and mining houses, among others - to beautify the public environment on this street.
“We now have a spine all the way. Revival is like a fire, it catches and spreads,” he says very proudly of the OPH initiative which has been such a catalyst for change.
Next, OPH is aiming to create a safer inner city and in so doing bring the nightlife back to the city centre.
“Of the 1-million people that enter the city every day, at least some of these people can be captured for inner city nightlife. The nightlife will bring more residential into the City,” he maintains. OPH is currently developing Fox Street for fine dining, with restaurants open till late to further this vision.
Olitzki says he “appreciates that the City has done a lot in the inner city”.
Today, OPH owns several well-refurbished commercial and retail blocks in the core CBD of the inner city.
Fixing it ourselves
When the chief executive officer of Connaught Properties, George Palmer was asked what the City can do to aid with his investments in the inner city, Palmer put it simply.
Connaught Properties CEO George Palmer and Hendrik de Klerk of Bad Boyz Security
“The only way to be successful in the inner city is not to complain about issues, but to fix it ourselves. We work with city departments through direct channels of communication, which is the best way.”
Connaught Properties’ primary objective is to provide spaces where residents feel safe, and offer guards and cleaners on their premises. “We have external guards roaming throughout our precincts and as a result, out tenants have become unusually safe and secure.”
Connaught’s tenants are therefore staying longer, with one tenant living in the same flat for nearly 40 years and another tenant for 22 years. Most tenants stay for a five-year period. Connaught’s residential mix consists of 25 to 40-year olds, the majority living in family units in Hillbrow.
Connaught has completed 400 units in the last 12 months. Palmer believes in reinvestment in his properties through constant planning and maintenance. “We have spent R20-million in upgrading our inner city properties through installing prepaid meters, internet connections and increasing the safety of our tenants.”
Although he owns other companies and has other business interests in Gauteng, Palmer dedicates most of his time to the inner city. Connaught will link their CCTV network to all related Hillbrow and Berea CCTVs with Connaught funding the link. Connaught is also promoting safety awareness among Hillbrow families and communities, and soccer and netball in the eKhaya Neighbourhood.
Palmer is proud of Connaught’s achievements but believes it is a team effort. “Our efforts are small. Nathi [Mthethwa, Region F Director] and Lael [Bethlehem, CEO of the Johannesburg Development Agency] are superstars.”
At the end of the interview, Palmer urges me to visit Hillbrow on Sunday mornings to listen to the beautiful church bells. He says that people’s perceptions of Hillbrow must change as the crime is down by 60 percent in the areas where Bad Boyz Security operates.
Come Sunday morning, I will be in Hillbrow.
Performance on the Charter
The economic development sector has made progress in the formulation of the trading master business plan and the development of the informal street trading by-laws. Two linear markets have been complete, namely Hoek Street and Quartz Street.
The City’s department of economic development has formalised the provision of adult basic education and training as a component of the education and training programme for 500 traders. The department has also made substantive progress on the delivery of the broadband telecommunications project and creating an enabling environment for the BPO sector and the City’s BPO Precinct.
In addition, a total of R7.149-billion worth of private investment has been recorded through the Urban Development Zone (UDZ) tax incentive since its inception six years ago.
The public spaces, arts, culture and heritage sector has successfully upgraded five inner city parks, namely Alec Gorshel, Donald Mackay, JS De Villiers, Le Roith, and Pieter Roos. The Johannesburg Development Agency added additional parks to the inner city with the transformation of three public open spaces - eKhaya Park in Hillbrow (which will be jointly managed by the private sector), Pigeon Square on Main Street and the Triangle at the Queen Elizabeth Bridge where the large William Kentridge and Gerhard Marx sculpture of the Fire Walker stands tall.
The rehabilitation of the Worker’s Library in Newtown is also complete and the profiling of the inner city as a Cultural Capital is gaining momentum with branded bins, murals and public art installed in cultural hot spots. This includes art murals depicting Miriam Makeba and Margaret Mcingana.
The private sector has provided 10 creative industry spaces at Arts on Main and the Potato Sheds development has provided 500m² to creative spaces.
By-law contraventions
To put effect to sustainable urban management and by-law enforcement, a comprehensive mapping of service breakdowns and by-law contraventions has been developed. Contraventions include illegal use of public spaces, identifying buildings that show deterioration, illegal occupation and by-law contravention, as well as mapping and tracking the status of illegal dump sites. This is updated on a quarterly basis. The enforcement capacity and resources of Johannesburg metro police have also been significantly increased with the establishment of an additional unit, the inner city task team.
Non-governmental organisation villages have received substantial support and planning work in the period under review. The Johannesburg migrant helpdesk has assisted 1 135 walk-in clients since its inception in April 2007.
The City will also provide a total of 1231 beds for emergency and transitional accommodation by the end of December 2009. This remains an ongoing deliverable with two buildings, La Rosabel and Vannin Court acquired from the Johannesburg Property Company through the better buildings programme and another four buildings purchased through private sales namely the Raschers, Linatex House, AA House and Europa House. In addition, the Chelsea Hotel was obtained through City of Johannesburg housing.
An integrated traffic and transportation study analyzing traffic movements, patterns, congestion, parking and strategic solutions in the inner city will be completed by February 2010. Upgrading around Rea Vaya stations and the completion of phase 1 of Rea Vaya are also planned for 2010.
In the next newsletter
The City of Joburg’s capital projects in the inner city for the 2009/2010 financial year, ending 30 June 2010 as well as featuring other significant private sector investment undertaken in the inner city.
From Santhurie Naidoo
Inner City Progamme Manager
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