After decades of talks and planning, the much-anticipated development of the “sleeper site” in East London’s city centre will begin in January with construction of a 4,000m² R100m municipal building.
This was revealed by Buffalo City Metro Development Agency (BCMDA) chief executive Bulumko Nelana on Monday when contacted by the Daily Dispatch following a workshop held for councillors on Friday.
Nelana told the Dispatch that phase one of development of the site would be construction of a civic centre – a combination of municipal offices and a hall.
The “sleeper site” covers 13ha of prime inner-city land previously owned by Transnet and bound by the central railway station, Quigney and Arcadia.
“Municipal offices [will be] for both councillors and some officials, as well as a hall for various public uses,” said Nelana, adding that the project was earmarked for January 2019 and was expected to be completed by 2021.
“The land was acquired by BCM in 2015 and BCM developed the best-use framework.
“In 2016 a ‘sleeper site’ development framework was approved by BCM.
“It was zoned for municipal offices when it was acquired. Currently this use is retained as authority zone 2 and there is also a portion zoned business zone 2,” said Nelana, meaning that the area had been zoned for government offices as well as retail.
‘The total sleeper site is 13,667ha,” Nelana added.
BCM councillors were told at Friday’s meeting that the development agency was working with the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) as the developer to implement the project.
“Initial estimates of phase 1 are R100m as per the state of the city address. This estimate is subject to detailed due diligence and project planning by the developer (PIC),” Nelana added. Currently the proposal is that PIC will put up the money for the site development and construction, with the plan being for BCM to rent-to-own the building.
In a report tabled before council last month, Nelana said the PIC had committed to undertake both the design and implementation of the project in various phases, including project initiation, planning, public engagement, and design and working drawings.
Although councillors welcomed the update given by the agency, they called for another workshop to be held for further details of the project to be presented.
“We rejected the option to rent the building once it’s completed,” ANC ward 25 councillor Crosby Kolela said.
“We agreed that BCMDA and PIC must present a detailed presentation before the project starts.
“We want transparency as we don’t want this to be a reckless exercise. In our next workshop we are expecting details.”
DA councillor Geoff Walton said “It would be nice to have everyone under one roof.
“The proposal is to have a public and private partnership that will see PIC providing the money. We will, however, still have to pay rent for at least 20 years. We have not accepted that option because we don’t know the rate at which we would be paying.
“We believe there is still a lot more discussion that needs to take place before this project can take place,” Walton said...