Construction and property

Corporates are building large new head offices.

The R3-billion building in Sandton that houses Discovery’s four businesses is the largest of several new buildings that have been constructed in recent years to accommodate corporate headquarters.

The main contractors were WBHO and Tiber in a joint venture (JV) with Aurecon consulting on environmentally sustainable design (ESD) and designing and providing mechanical services. Boogertman and Partners were the architects for the building which was developed by a JV comprising Growthpoint Properties and Zenprop Property Holdings. The project won the 2019 SAPOA Property Development Awards for Innovative Excellence and received a five-star rating from the Green Building Council SA.

WBHO also had a hand in the construction of the Thavhani Mall in Thohoyandou, Limpopo (pictured). This 50 000m² regional mall won the SAPOA award for Rural and Small Town Development.

Another corporate head office that ticks every available green box is Exxaro’s new building in Centurion. Another Growthpoint development, the building includes innovations such as a nutrient recovery urinal and a pilot project for waterless urinals for women.

The imposing Absa Towers Main in central Johannesburg is not new, but it is being renewed via a major upgrade in the course of its conversion to a mixed-use building. Within its 30 storeys, there will be restaurants and coffee shops, child-care facilities and 520 flats in the “af-

SECTOR INSIGHT

Green buildings are becoming more common.

fordable” bracket. The total value of the investment by Divercity is said to be R2-billion.

Sandton, which hosts thousands of businesses and has one of Africa’s biggest shopping malls in Sandton City, is also one of the busiest building sites in the country. Apart from the complete Discovery headquarters, Old Mutual is building new premises and The Legacy Group is building The Leonardo, a multi-use building that will be South Africa’s tallest building when it is complete.

At 55 stories, The Leonardo

will rise 150m above the city streets and will offer retail and office space, a conference venue, a hotel and accommodation options ranging from one-bedroomed flats to eight penthouses and the Leonardo suite.

At national level, job losses and business rescues were recurring themes in the South African construction sector in 2017 and 2018. The announcement in late 2018 that work on the R4.3-billion Oceans Umhlanga project had been halted seemed to confirm this trend, but indications are that work on this huge residential, hotel and retail mall development will resume.

In this context, it is easy to understand why the annual Cesa Aon Engineering Excellence Awards acknowledged the developer of eight large projects covering commercial, industrial, retail and residential. Property company Tongaat Hulett Developers won Visionary Client of the Year at an engineering awards event in 2017, a recognition of how much construction is underway north of Durban on land that used to be covered in sugar cane.

Tongaat Hulett has been rolling out a series of developments for several year, but in 2018 it launched the large nTshongweni Urban Development on either side of the busy N3 highway west of the city. Land use will be housing, light industry and logistics with a private developer committed to building a shopping mall. In order to fight urban decay and to encourage investment in inner cities, a tax incentive was created called the Urban Development Zone tax incentive. The UDZs for Johannesburg and Cape Town were first allocated in 2004. Making inner cities more liveable is a world- wide trend.

Trends

A big new development on Oxford Road in the Johannesburg suburb of Rosebank says a lot about the South African construction and property sector. The 300 000m² Oxford Parks mixed-use development by Intraprop began construction in 2017 and the first phase is valued at about R1-billion.

Firstly, South Africans love shopping malls. The South African Council of Shopping Centres calculates that the country has the sixth-highest highest number of shopping malls in the world. R2billion was recently spent on Menlyn Park in Pretoria to expand it to 177 000m² of gross lettable space while the Gateway Theatre of Shopping in Durban, South Africa’s second-biggest mall, recently spent R750-million.

Secondly, development often follows existing patterns (Rosebank-Sandton is already the richest and densest retail and office precinct in Africa). Many of South Africa’s biggest firms have their headquarters in this area: BPSA will take up residence in Oxford Parks. Thirdly, the concept of “lifestyle” malls has caught on. The best known of these is Johannesburg’s Melrose Arch.

Finally, the Oxford Parks project illustrates a big shift in the construction sector away from large conglomerates towards smaller, blackempowered companies. The sale in 2017 of Murray & Roberts Construction to a black-led consortium is part of a wider trend.

Away from the glitz of multi-purpose malls and towering office blocks, Statistics SA has found that the percentage of South Africans living in flats has risen markedly. Whereas 26 out of 100 approved plans in 2013 were for flats, this figure reached 59 in 2016. Although the total number of people living in flats is still relatively small (5.4%), this figure will rise as urbanisation increases.

ONLINE RESOURCES

Construction Industry Development Board: www.cidb.org.za SA Institute of Architects: www.saia.org.za South African Property Owners Association: www.sapoa.org.za

Growing a national footprint

Maritz Electrical is expanding.

Having established a loyal customer base in the private and public sectors in the Western Cape, Maritz Electrical has expanded its horizons, showing that it is ready to tackle projects anywhere in South Africa.

Recent projects that indicate the versatility that the company brings to lighting projects, in particular in LED lighting and in large-area lighting, include: a world-first LED stadium lighting project in Port Elizabeth, another stadium in the Free State, East London airport building lighting and mast lighting for informal settlements for the Buffalo City Municipality.

With an expanding workload, Maritz Electrical made a move in 2018 to new premises in Athlone. Founder and Managing Director Kurt Maritz explains, “We have moved 150 staff from three branches into one customised 3 000-square-metre facility. It is designed in such a way that we have enough space for 50% expansion. Half of the massive space we dry-walled so that we have a suite of offices.”

There are no specific targets, but Kurt is clearly looking forward with anticipation. “We don’t have any ceiling we want to hit. Our engine is our sales department. As much work as they bring in, that’s how we will grow.”

Free State

Kaizer Sebothelo Stadium was built as a multi-use venue but mainly used to host football matches in the township of Botshabelo east of Bloemfontein. The 20 000-seater stadium is the home ground for Botshabelo Football Club and Tower United FC.

Maritz Electrical replaced the existing, outdated lighting, as their output intensity was too low to cater for high-definition camera equipment. Mangaung Municipality’s tender stipulated that the lighting needed an up-

grade to HD quality using a local lighting brand. The Maritz solution not only saved close to R3-million, but provided a 10-year warranty, resulting in further savings for the client.

Musco 1500w metal halide luminaries were installed for field lighting and LED luminaries for emergency lighting. The stadium’s generator was upgraded to 110KVa. Using any other system would have required the upgrade of the power supply, but this was not necessary as the Musco system uses approximately 25% less power than conventional systems Eastern Cape In 2017, St George’s Park became the world’s first International Cricket Council-compliant, LED-lit stadium and the first such stadium to be fitted with theatrics. Over four days in December 2017, the famous ground celebrated the landmark of being the first South African venue to host a day-night Test match, against Zimbabwe. The R27-million contract was completed on time and on budget by a team from Maritz Electrical led by Warren Williams. Two project managers from Musco Lighting supported the installation. The lights on top of the Duckpond Pavilion were hoisted at night, the process being illuminated by floodlight.

Project Manager Diketso Kumalo reports that the six-month contract to install LED energy-saving lights at East London Airport was completed on time and on budget. Says Kumalo, “One of our goals for all projects that we do is to satisfy the client and leave them with a happy face.”

LED lighting can significantly reduce power consumption. Maritz Lighting’s pre-installation and post-installation testing confirmed that East London Airport will be saving on electricity costs.

The Maritz contract with the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality entails providing mast lighting to informal settlements across the municipality. “We are providing them with 20m-high masts with LED luminaires,” says Kumalo. “LED consumes much less power compared to high-pressure sodium or metal halide although the LED the lux level is better.” Costs will be reduced and the power of illumination will be better for residents.

Kumalo says that there is a possibility that Maritz Electrical might open an Eastern Cape office. “Our presence is growing,” he notes. “Depending on the amount of work we receive from the province, we might be looking at opening another office in the Eastern Cape.” Kumalo points out that Maritz Electrical’s expertise extends beyond lighting. “We do a variety of electrical works. We also offer project management, consulting, compliance and hazardous area classification and MV and LV maintenance.”

Western Cape The municipal authorities of Overstrand and Stellenbosch have contracted Maritz Electrical to work on low-cost housing projects. This is a big market and Maritz Electrical is building its skills set in this area. Aspects of this market include reticulation, electrification, street lights, road-side furniture and mini-substations. ■