November 2013
CONSTRUCTION WORLD
34
Negotiations for the first property sales within the recently
released 17 hectare Bridge City Business Estate – a prime location just
17 kilometres from the Durban port and 23 kilometres from the King
Shaka International Airport – are well underway.
projects & contracts
THE ENTIRE 60 HECTARE
Bridge City
development, which includes the mixed use
commercial and residential town centre as
well as the business estate, is expected to
attract public and private investment to-
talling over R10-billion. Of this, the newly
released business estate is expected to
contribute R1-billion.
Cyril Gwala, Tongaat Hulett’s develop-
ment director responsible for Bridge City,
the River Horse Valley Business Estate and
Cornubia, is confident that that the entire
Bridge City Town Centre and Business Estate
will be a reality within the next five years.
He says the Bridge City Business Estatewhich
is predicated on amixed usemodel similar to
that of the highly successful River HorseValley
Business Estate, is a greenfields development
that is expected to transform the surround-
ing communities of Inanda, Ntuzuma and
KwaMashu (INK).
Massive strides have already been made
in the Town Centre and services have been
being installed. Construction began with
the vibrant Bridge City shopping centre in
2008. This provides for 68 000 m
2
of retail
space and is tenanted by some of the big-
gest names in South African retail including
Spar,Woolworths, the Edcon Group as well as
restaurants such as Spur and Chicken Licken.
The Bridge City shopping centre is one
of the anchors of the 43 hectare Bridge
City Town Centre together with the iconic
regional Magistrate’s Court which opened
in May 2013. Additional key developments
within the new Town Centre are expected to
include a R1,2-billion, 450 bed public regional
hospital for which the piling and services
have already been completed. The hospital
has experienced unavoidable delays but it is
expected that construction will begin within
the next two years.
The site between the regional Magistrate’s
Court and the hospital has been secured by
Ithala Bank for a mixed use development.
Sites positioned opposite this are expected
to attract a great deal of rental interest for
professional practices, legal chambers and
medical facilities which indicates sound
investment opportunities for developers.
Existing subdivided and saleable sites
are available for mixed use (retail, offices and
residential development) directly across from
the Bridge City shopping centre and along
the Bridge City Boulevard which crosses
the town centre and business estate and
Bridge City development
gathers momentum
provides opportunities for retail frontingonto
the main thoroughfares.
In addition to the provision of residential
accommodation above the shopping centre
itself, central key sites have been set aside
for multi-storey residential developments
directly opposite the Bridge City shopping
centre. High rise developments of between
six and eight storeys that will have good city
views will provide significant residential bulk
as will proposed four to six storey ‘walk-up’
units. These are expected to accommodate
professionals employed by the medical and
legal businesses as well as other commercial
and industrial operations.
The 17hectarebusiness estate is expected
to attract a wide variety of investors and is
ideal for distribution centres and logistics
companies, building materials retailers, fast
moving consumer goods wholesalers and
retailers as well as light industrial opera-
tions. The size of sites – which are priced at
R1 400 per m
2
platform area – depend on
the topography and the needs of individual
investors. The town centre sites are priced at
R950 per m
2
of retail bulk and R300 per m
2
of residential bulk. These prices are currently
being reviewed.
A four hectare site in the business estate
has been sold to the city for its newBus Rapid
Transit (BRT) depot and there are a number
of other active enquiries.
Gwala believes that both the location
along the rapidly developing northern
coastal corridor and access to the new rail
station and line and to the BRT bus public
transport will be key to attracting investors
to Bridge City. The city’s new BRT bus system
will have Bridge City as a major destination.
Transport facilities include a new railway
station and line, and bus and taxi ranks. It
is anticipated that, once Bridge City is fully
developed, the rail stationwill accommodate
approximately 100 000 commuters every
day, making it the second busiest station in
KwaZulu-Natal.
Security is a priority throughout Bridge
City. In addition to 24-hour rapid armed
response, the entire precinct will be moni-
tored via CCTV with a monitoring station
located at the Bridge City shopping centre.
The Bridge CityManagement Associationwill
be responsible for this.
Gwala says both Bridge City and the
River Horse Valley Business Estate are testa-
ment to the power of public, private sector
partnerships (PPPs) to deliver on industrial
development. The Bridge City development
is a joint venture between the eThekwini
Municipality andTongaat Hulett. It is also the
projectmanager responsible for implementa-
tion of the project onto the ground as well as
the mandated sales agent for Bridge City.
●
The newly released 17 hectare Bridge City Business Estate is pictured in the foreground of this
aerial photograph of the entire development which is expected to attract public and
private investment totalling over R10-billion.
