The success of Century City continues with billions of rands of new residential, commercial and hospitality projects rapidly rising out of the ground.

The bulk of these new developments are taking place in the Bridgeways precinct bordered by Sable and Ratanga Roads and Century Boulevard where five cranes are busy with the construction of the 18 000 square metre, R425million Bridge Park office development – a joint venture between Rabie Property Group and Growthpoint Properties – and the Century City Urban Square (CCUS), a R1billion mixed use project comprising:

• A 900 seat Century City Conference Centre with 12 meeting rooms around a business class lounge,
• A 125 bedroom hotel
• The Annex, 3500 square metres of offices to let over four floors above the conference centre with ground floor entrance.
• The Matrix, a mixed use building comprising ground floor retail/showrooms, three storeys of offices totalling 4500 square metres which are for sale and which will be bought to the market in April and 51 residential apartments set over a further three storeys.
• The Apex, an iconic eight storey building comprising 7900 square metres of offices over seven storeys of offices with ground floor restaurants, bistros and coffee shops spilling out onto the public square. This building is for purchase or to let.
• A six floor structured parking building and a super basement parking garage providing a total of 1330 parking bays.

Colin Anderson, a director of developer Rabie Property Group, says the Century City Urban Square is the largest development they have undertaken to date at Century City. Scheduled for completion at the end of 2015, it will bring to more than R21billion the value of development which has taken place since the launch of Century City in 1997.

He said other new developments being undertaken or in advanced planning stages elsewhere in Century City include:

• R275million Ashton Park residential development which is nearing completion;
• Palme d’Or, the R220million fourth apartment block in the Oasis Luxury Retirement Resort construction of which has now started;
• Grosvenor Square, a R140million sectional title office development due to come on stream in September this year ;
• Aurecon 2, a second building for the Aurecon group being undertaken at a cost of R115million;
• Mayfair, a R300million mixed use development comprising sectional title apartments and offices. Construction of the 136 residential apartments has now also started
• R61m expansion of Canal Walk Shopping Centre to provide a further 2000 square metres of space for Woolworths due for completion in June this year.
• A R50million state-of-the-art day surgery centre which opens in July 2015.
• Manhattan Quarter, a R120million new residential development of 63 units
• A major expansion of the Curro Century City school which will include a high school component and almost double its capacity to 1390 by 2017
• An 11 000 square metre office block, Canal Plaza, being undertaken by Assetmatrix at a cost of R250million.
• A 4900 square metre office block for Electro Mechanica in Century Gate precinct currently under construction at a cost of R73million.

Anderson said that over and above this, infrastructure projects totalling more than R130million were being undertaken including the construction of R45million of roads and canals in the Bridgeways precinct, an R18million upgrade of Sable Road and a further R2million upgrade of Bosmansdam Drive aimed at significantly easing peak traffic congestion, the R16million rollout of Century City Connect – Century City’s cutting-edge, open access fibre optic network which is enabling the country’s fastest voice, broadband and multi-media services and a R36million trunk terminus for MyCiTi which is due for completion in April this year .

Recently completed developments, totalling more than R1,2billion include Palm Royale, the R260million third apartment block in the Oasis Retirement Resort, the R220million mixed use Quays development comprising 4000 square metres of sectional title offices, 92 apartments and a restaurant; three Green Star rated office buildings in the Bridgeways precinct – the R200million Chevron head office building, the 4000 square metre Business Centre and the 4000 square metre Philip Morris offices, each developed at a cost of R85million; four office buildings in Park Lane at a total cost of around R200million including one which is home to the Auditor General; two office blocks for Triocon House and Horizon Capital in The Estuaries at a cost of R42million and three other office buildings in Central Park at a cost of R70million.