The fire that devastated a section of The Mills in Newtown a year ago is now firmly a thing of the past, and tenants are about to move into the newly refurbished offices.

The Mills is a six-storey office development on the north-western edge of Newtown, located in one of four factory buildings originally owned by Premier Milling. The developer, Urban Solutions, has itself taken some of the space, having converted the remainder into offices for 15 tenants.

The fire started when sparks from a welder ignited dust on the floor, setting fire to the fifth floor offices of Urban Solutions, who had moved in the day before. The company lost all their records except for current work that had been e-mailed to clients a month or so before. This was returned to the company to rebuild its archives.

The Mills is an attractive red-bricked and red-iron roofed building, on the corner of Carr and Quinn streets, with the heavy steel girders now painted cream to blend in with the office interiors, or black to complement the stairwell exteriors. New black metal stairways and slate tiles enhance this effect.

Larger windows have been added, a lift has been put in, down pipes have been painted red in keeping with the red roofs, creating a pleasing space taken up by advertising agencies, architects, graphic designers, Business & Arts South Africa, and a coffee bar called the Fuel Café. Next door the Songwriters' Club continues this theme, with an interior defined by shiny corrugated iron finishes.

The top offices have a loft feel, with wooden beams running diagonally from the roof to the wooden floor. From the rooftop, one looks over a myriad red iron roofs, mostly 2-3 storeys, with an occasional taller building, most awaiting refurbishment.

Some of the other buildings in The Mills development will also be converted to office and residential space, in total an area of 12 000m². One of these is a building a block down from The Mills, at 37 Quinn Street, and will be converted into 55 loft apartments, with offices on the lower level. Construction begins in February 2005.

Across the road from The Mills another building stands vacant, with silos reaching into the sky, offering very creative challenges to the developer. Urban Solutions is part of a consortium that owns it, and redevelopment is likely to start in 2005.

The Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) has come to the part, repaving the sidewalks around The Mills, placed cement bollards on street corners and installing new lighting along the theme of the nearby Nelson Mandela Bridge. Creative touches include a mosaic bench with a backrest that forms a trunk of a tree, sprouting branches several metres high. Guards patrol the street, keeping an eye on cars parked along Quinn and Gwigwi Mrwebi Street (formerly Pim). One of the development's drawbacks is that it does not provide parking.

Premier Milling sold 26 stands in Newtown two years ago to various developers and moved to new premises in Woodmead.

Newtown North

The JDA commissioned Urban Solutions to do a report on Newtown North, the area immediately south of the Nelson Mandela Bridge, and encompassing The Mills, 60 percent of which is vacant land.

This land belongs to Propnet, a division of Transnet, part of the larger railway yards over which the bridge spans. The report was commissioned on behalf of Propnet, which wants to realise the value of this important real estate.

The report suggests leaving the original Victorian Park Station, presently positioned on a portion of the vacant land, and building a mix of retail, office and residential space around it, allowing for open, public spaces. In addition, several roads will be extended to Carr Street, pedestrian connections will be developed and street furniture like shelters and benches will be installed.

Newtown North, still to be approved by the mayoral committee, will become an integrated whole with the rest of the suburb, developed as the cultural heart of the city, and complementing other developments like the Brickfields complex, a mix of 1 000 lower and middle income units.

Other developments in Newtown include the construction of Central Place, a large square with mixed-use buildings south of Mary Fitzgerald Square, and the refurbishment of the Electric Workshop into a world-class science education centre.

Cultural venues in Newtown consist of the Market Theatre, MuseuMAfrica, the Dance Factory, the Newtown Music Centre, the Workers' Museum and Library, the Bus Factory, as well as several trendy restaurants like Moyo and Gramadoelas.

Newtown is also becoming home to a number of local and provincial government agencies: the Gauteng Tourism Authority is to take space in Central Place, and Blue IQ, the provincial development agency, has offices in President Street, next door to the City's arts, culture and heritage offices.

Johannesburg News Agency