The City of Tshwane recently revealed its ambitions to construct the tallest building in Africa, featuring two offices and one residential tower, and also including hotel and retail facilities. The Centurion Symbio-City project, as it will be known, was announced by Mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa at the Tshwane International Trade and Infrastructure Investment Conference last week
News of the planned Centurion sky scraper – planned to be the 14th tallest freestanding structure in the world – has however reportedly sent waves of confusion and unhappiness across the local business community, which is worried about the effect it will have on their projects and ventures.
The tallest tower in the mini-city is planned to be 110 storeys high (447m) flanked by a further two towers of 80 and 60 floors each. The tower will be linked to the convention centre by an underground walkway. The initiative will be built on and around Centurion Lake on ten hectares of land, located between the Ben Schoeman Highway and the N1 Highway corridor, adjacent to the Gautrain Station.
According to an IOL report, work on the multimillion-rand project was expected to start before the end of the year, council sources said on Monday, and although it still remains unclear when the proposed development will be completed, the project could take anything up to eight years.
Businesses around the Centurion lakeside mall maintain that Centurion was going through an economic slump and would not be able to handle the influx a project of this nature could bring. Some nearly 38,000m², or over 10% of office space in Centurion, is presently vacant as reported by the SAPOA Office Vacancy Surveys. Clearly the question of sustainable demand has to be posed.
That the project was situated within 50m of two hotels – Centurion Lake Hotel, to the east, and Protea Hotel, to the west - also defies business logic and the apparent lack of consultation is being criticised.
Although Capital City Business Chamber chief executive Fanie du Plessis applauded the city for bringing a project that could accommodate conventions of the nature that Sandton City could, saying it was important for the city not to lose such events to Midrand’s Gallagher Estate, he goes on to say that Business people in the city deserve to be consulted. Pretoria News reports that the project is at least five or so years in the making with discussions and consultations.
The project promises International money which could indeed change the face of the Centurion CBD, including significant upgrades to the roads system and infrastructure.
Ramokgopa that this project could create more than 10 000 jobs during construction and 4 000 afterwards. Through such projects, the Metro intends to transform Centurion into a new economy that then potentialy holds out hope for additional international commercial interest.
