Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa March 2013 | Page 44

SMART MOVES

BY ANGIE REDMOND

Spotlight On JHB

Will the CBD regain popularity or will crime keep it empty?

J

ohannesburg is a centre of mining,
ma nu fac t u r ing, a nd f ina nce, a nd
produces 16 percent of South Africa’s
gross domestic product. In a 2007 survey
conducted by Mastercard, Johannesburg
ranked 47 out of 50 top cities in the world as a
worldwide centre of commerce.
M i n i n g w a s t h e fo u n d a t i o n of t h e
Witwatersrand’s economy, but its importance
has dec l ined w it h dw ind l ing reser ves,
and service and manufacturing industries
have become more signif icant. The city’s
manufacturing industries ranges from textiles
to specialty steels, and there is still a reliance on
manufacturing for mining.
The service and other industries include
banking, IT, real estate, transport, broadcast
and print media, private health care, transport
and a vibrant leisure and consumer retail
market. Johannesburg has Africa’s largest
stock exchange, the JSE Securities Exchange.
Due to its commercial role, the city is the seat
of the provincial government and the site of a
number of government branch offices, as well as
consular offices and other institutions.
Unitas House in Marshall Street in the
Johannesburg CBD was the centre for the
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March 2013 SA Real Estate Investor

headquarters of most of the major role players
in the South African mining industry, including
Anglo American, De Beers, General Mining,
Union Corporation etc. Nearby in Hollard
Street there was the Stock Exchange and
most of the major banks had their head offices
in this precinct. The eye-catching Standard
Bank building was one example, with the later
development of an enormous HO complex at the
end of Simmonds Street for the bank, spanning
several city blocks.
When the Carlton Centre was built in the
1970s, a few of the larger corporates such
as AECI moved their offices there, from 40
Fox Street. However the construction of new
skyscrapers such as 2 Diagonal Street, which
housed some of the country’s leading newspaper
groups and the Stock Exchange, continued the
trend of building. This also extended beyond the
CBD to Braamfontein, where the Schlesinger
Building and the new Civic Centre had been
built amongst others.
Transport to the City was fairly well run in
those days with hundreds of thousands of
commuters using buses and trains to commute
every day. Despite the addition of the N1 north

and south and the Ben Schoeman Highway,
along with the upgrading of the network of
arterial roads around the City, traff ic was
already starting to create a problem.
With the inf lux of office workers came the
supply chain of restaurants, coffee shops,
supermarkets, retail stores etc. Convenience
stores spra ng up on e ver y cor ner a nd
entrepreneurs f locked to End Street and
areas around the bus terminus as well as the
train station to sell their wares. However this
raised a new issue, crime and grime. Buildings
on the periphery of the CBD began a slow
decline because of high rentals and undesirable
elements moving in. When the Carlton Hotel
shut there were rumors that this was the
beginning of the end for the CBD. Another
good example of an iconic building falling
into disrepair was the Ponte Tower block in
Hillbrow, which became a haven for gangsters.
When Sandton City was built even the
developers did not realise the huge impact
that it and other major developments in parts
of Jo’burg would have on decentralisation and
the trend to move offices from the CBD. The
location of Sandton and surrounding areas made
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