All together now as integrated suburb is unveiled at Cape Town hospital site

A development that claims to be SA’s first fully integrated, mixed-income, mixed-use suburb has been unveiled on the site of an old hospital in Cape Town.

The 22ha Conradie Park, between Thornton and Pinelands, will eventually have more than 3,500 homes as well as shops, commercial buildings, two schools and a hotel.

Some of the homes on the site of the former Conradie Hospital will be subsidised or grant funded, while others will be sold for prices ranging upwards from R950,000. The first phase, just launched, contains 99 homes.

The project is a partnership between the Western Cape government and developer Concor, which bought the land for R200m and plans to spend R3bn developing it.

Announcing it last year, the Western Cape cabinet said the so-called Conradie Better Living Model Game Changer would “assist in addressing the apartheid spatial-planning legacy by creating well-located‚ affordable‚ integrated housing opportunities”.

Conradie, which operated as a hospital between 1938 and 2002‚ is near Voortrekker Road and a railway line‚ offering residents easy access to public transport.

The schools on the site will each have 800 pupils. The development is expected to take up to seven years to complete‚ creating more than 2‚000 jobs during construction.

Conradie Park’s head of sales, Wayne Lawson, said the development would be aspirational. “By connecting various groups, those renting subsidised housing will be inspired to buy subsidised properties,” he said.

“Subsidised homeowners will in turn strive to buy their first house on the open market. The model provides social and financial support for this.”

Concor project leader Mark Schonrock, said the model showed how state-owned land could be used to boost economic growth while providing mixed-income housing in one neighbourhood.

Foot and cycling paths were part of a non-motorised transport plan while green technology had been applied to energy, water and waste management.

“We’re essentially building a new, affordable, sustainable, self-contained town for the future characterised by integration, connection and inspiration,” said Schonrock.

“It’s a first, and the public is embracing the vision and its potential to help address the country’s housing challenges.”