Architect and Builder Magazine South Africa March/April 2015 | Page 20

PROJECTVIEW
NEW MALL FOR
CARLETONVILLE

A new R330 million shopping
centre is being developed on
Gauteng’s West Rand by the Bentel
Group, in association with Pretoriabased Fontis Developments, and
designed to serve the gold-mining
town of Carletonville, and the
neighbouring township Khutsong.
The Carletonville Mall, set to be
±25,500m2 in size and opening
in September 2015, will ensure a
quality shopping destination is right
on the doorstep of Carletonville.
In addition to Khutsong, the new
mall’s catchment area also includes
Westonaria and Fochville.
The mall is located on the main access
road to Potchefstroom. With a new
railway bridge, road interchange
and pedestrian access bridge being
built near the centre, access to the
new centre for shoppers will be
significantly improved.
Carletonville Mall represents a
major investment in the town
outside its mainstay mining sector.
www.bentel.net

20

NEW RIDGE 7 OFFICE BLOCK FOR UMHLANGA
FWJK Developments has recently
launched their seventh pure office
development in Umhlanga known as Ridge
7 which is a 6,300m² office development
and the first to be undertaken by their
new architectural division, bringing their
total developed office square metreage
in Umhlanga to 34,000m². Unrelenting
demand for smaller affordable sectional
title office space in Umhlanga has
triggered, according to Dave WilliamsJones, CEO of FWJK this further office
development ideally located on the
Chris Saunders Park close to Gateway
Shopping Centre.
With the Ridgeside Office Estate being
virtually fully developed, and with limited
land available for office development, the
logical move was to the Umhlanga New Town
Centre where significant new development
is now underway and this meant replacing
sea views with the convenience associated
with Gateway Retail Precinct.
Williams-Jones advised that the take
up on sales has been brisk since the
project’s formal launch in January 2015
and he expected a sell out by the end of
March 2015. He attributed the rapid sales
take up to their Co-development At Cost
Methodology which delivers an A-Grade
standard product for delivery in October
2016 at less than R22,000/m² which
equates to a current value of R18,500/m²
for brand new office space.
According to Nicole Richards who
heads FWJK Architecture, the design
produced offers a fresh contemporary, well
proportioned and timeless architectural

design with clean lines, often a challenge
under the financial constraints inevitably
placed on architects in speculative sectional
title developments where affordability
means everything to the success of the
development. This requirement drove both
a super efficient basement parking design
as well as top structure design.
The building comprises two basement
levels with three office levels above. The
concept design of the building had to
incorporate a public walkway servitude
between the new BRT bus station and the
Chris Saunders Park. The public walkway
terminates at the focal point of the
building overlooking the park, dominated
by the shaded colonnade, providing
an ambience for restaurants which will
occupy the ground floor.
The bottom line, according to
Williams-Jones, is that the more efficiently
everything works together, the more
likely the investment will succeed from
many viewpoints including energy, usage
and design. Williams-Jones believes that
creating a formally attractive building
whilst creating embedded value will
continue to be of greater and greater
value to investors many of whom are
repeat investors or end users.
Developer: FWJK Developments
Architect: FWJK Architecture
Project Manager:
FWJK Project Management
QS: FWJK Quantity Surveyors
Structural, Electrical & Mechanical
Engineers: Palace Group Engineers

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