GRAHAM NORRIS

Property Editor

ANOTHER major Cape property developer, Asrin, is backing the Ratanga Road/Century City area as a sure-fire winner - but Asrin, unlike many others, has opted for a mixed-use business park rather than a residential complex.

The park will be known as Prosperity Business Park and will be similar in design, style and pricing to the highly successful Centurion Business Park development now all but sold out.

On both projects the agent is William de la Porte who found both the sites. There will be 40 single storey units at Prosperity Business Park, varying in size from 80m2 to 100m2 each. Arrangements can be made to consolidate two or more units and certain buyers have already done this. The style, as at Centurion Business Park, will be authentically Cape with white gables and green tiles on pitched roofs. A calcium silicate silver maintenance-free brick will be used for all the facades. The units will be laid out in six rows and the design allows for ample parking - way in excess of what the municipality in fact requires. Security will be "as comprehensive as we can make it", said Asrin's marketing director, Shiraaz Onia. The entire one-hectare estate will be enclosed by walls with palisade fencing inserts and will have only one entrance.

Although advertising for the development has only just started, more than half the space has been signed for and Onia expects a big response to the launch.

"We should be completely sold out by the end of March because right now some half a dozen deals are in the pipeline and more are coming in. I believe there is a real need for this type of product at the sort of prices we are able to offer - from R314 000 to R365 000. It would, I believe, be difficult to find new premises anywhere that are more affordable - and certainly none in so strategic a position, close to the harbour, the railway and the national freeway network."

Onia said that the project is well suited to investors because at today's interest rates the rentals (at around R40 per m2) will make it possible to cover monthly repayments on a 90% bond. The professional team on the project is:

Paul Judd of Creative Architectural Designs.

Ted Kalley of EAS Consultants (electrical consultants).
Alan Lacey of Strata Civils (civil engineering contractors).
Biff Lewis of Biff Lewis Geomatics (land surveyors).
William de la Porte (021 551 7202) and
Anne Marie du Bois of Asrin (021 683 2733) are handling the sales.