The idyllic combination of a scenic coastline on one side and verdant countryside on the other at East Coast resorts has become an irresistible attraction to people wanting to escape city life but still be near it.The stretch from Kwelerha to Chintsa has become a popular area to relocate to from urban areas.
The burgeoning Crossways Village Centre highlights the growth of the area, and has been dubbed the “gateway to the Wild Coast”.
The centre, which houses an impressive variety of stores and businesses including a large supermarket, a pharmacy, restaurants and coffee shops, a vet, radio station, nursery, doggie parlour, estate agency, clothes shop and hardware store as well as three blocks of flats, is flourishing despite having to rely on rainwater and septic tanks.
The mixed-use village centre has ballooned to service the residential developments which have gone up at this development node.
The Olivewood lifestyle estate, with its 18-hole golf course that was previously known as the Chintsa River Golf Estate, is nearing completion, marketing strategist Ted Keenan said.
“Golfers should be playing by early 2016, with occupation of the first units in November.”
Keenan said the Crossways development node would eventually be “a suburb that competes with Gonubie”, and would include a much-needed sewerage treatment plant.
A 110-unit project called Waterside Village, situated on the other side of Crossways dam, was on track, Keenan said.
The homes there will be the first phase of a development by brothers Craig and Chris Lindhorst, who bought the supermarket and 80ha of land surrounding Crossways eight years ago.
The country estate will be launched near the end of next month, with occupation of the first units expected by Easter next year.
Keenan said the second phase of the development would consist of a further 200 “slightly more upmarket” units, while it was was envisaged that phase three would be built across Schafli Road and would include a “modular” sewerage treatment works.
Crossways hardware store employee Lesley Ford, who lives in nearby Sunrise-on-Sea and moved there from Johannesburg, said the area offered a relaxed lifestyle.
She said the mushrooming of Crossways could be measured by the increasing number of visits the sewage “honeysucker” made to the centre. “I’ve noticed they come three times a week now because they fill up quicker.”
Frequent clearance has not stopped sewage from bubbling up at the signposted entrance to the village, however, but Keenan said this was “within days of being fixed”.
He said new developments would result in a municipal water supply being required.
Pharmacist Chris Kriel, who owns Crossways Pharmacy, said he was one of the centre’s original tenants. He was “pleasantly surprised” by the shopping hub’s expansion since he opened his pharmacy in 2006.
Kriel, who lives in Chintsa East, said he had chosen to live and work in the area because it was quiet and safe. “Crossways has grown phenomenally and more people are living in the area. we are within walking distance to the beach and there is less crime. In nine years there has only been one attempted robbery at a shop here.”
Blue Goose Cafe owner, Charmaine Staude, who also lives in one of the apartment blocks at Crossways, said “it is so peaceful here, and I’d hate to stay in town”.
East Coast development spurt
The burgeoning Crossways Village Centre highlights the growth of the area, and has been dubbed the “gateway to the Wild Coast”.
The centre, which houses an impressive variety of stores and businesses including a large supermarket, a pharmacy, restaurants and coffee shops, a vet, radio station, nursery, doggie parlour, estate agency, clothes shop and hardware store as well as three blocks of flats, is flourishing despite having to rely on rainwater and septic tanks.
The mixed-use village centre has ballooned to service the residential developments which have gone up at this development node.
The Olivewood lifestyle estate, with its 18-hole golf course that was previously known as the Chintsa River Golf Estate, is nearing completion, marketing strategist Ted Keenan said.
“Golfers should be playing by early 2016, with occupation of the first units in November.”
Keenan said the Crossways development node would eventually be “a suburb that competes with Gonubie”, and would include a much-needed sewerage treatment plant.
A 110-unit project called Waterside Village, situated on the other side of Crossways dam, was on track, Keenan said.
The homes there will be the first phase of a development by brothers Craig and Chris Lindhorst, who bought the supermarket and 80ha of land surrounding Crossways eight years ago.
The country estate will be launched near the end of next month, with occupation of the first units expected by Easter next year.
Keenan said the second phase of the development would consist of a further 200 “slightly more upmarket” units, while it was was envisaged that phase three would be built across Schafli Road and would include a “modular” sewerage treatment works.
Crossways hardware store employee Lesley Ford, who lives in nearby Sunrise-on-Sea and moved there from Johannesburg, said the area offered a relaxed lifestyle.
She said the mushrooming of Crossways could be measured by the increasing number of visits the sewage “honeysucker” made to the centre. “I’ve noticed they come three times a week now because they fill up quicker.”
Frequent clearance has not stopped sewage from bubbling up at the signposted entrance to the village, however, but Keenan said this was “within days of being fixed”.
He said new developments would result in a municipal water supply being required.
Pharmacist Chris Kriel, who owns Crossways Pharmacy, said he was one of the centre’s original tenants. He was “pleasantly surprised” by the shopping hub’s expansion since he opened his pharmacy in 2006.
Kriel, who lives in Chintsa East, said he had chosen to live and work in the area because it was quiet and safe. “Crossways has grown phenomenally and more people are living in the area. we are within walking distance to the beach and there is less crime. In nine years there has only been one attempted robbery at a shop here.”
Blue Goose Cafe owner, Charmaine Staude, who also lives in one of the apartment blocks at Crossways, said “it is so peaceful here, and I’d hate to stay in town”.
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