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CONSTRUCTION WORLD
MARCH
2016
Ehlers comments: “Our ethos at Atterbury is
‘it’s a matter of association’. The City Lodge
Hotel Group is a leading and well-recognised
hotel brand in South Africa. We are happy to
have an association with the group and to
have developed yet another hotel with them.
Newtown is a vibrant node in the Joburg CBD
and is now home to the City Lodge Hotel
Group’s newest hotel.
“This will no doubt give our urban regen-
eration effort a boost, bringing more visitors
and business into Newtown Junction and
the CBD.”
The anchor 38 000 m² retail compo-
nent of the Newtown Junction mixed-use
development was opened in September
2014. Later about 39 000 m² of prime office
space was complete in a landmark building,
which secured a 4 Green Star SA rating from
the Green Building Council South Africa and
is now home to Nedbank’s City Campus.
Newtown Junction has more than 80 stores,
restaurants and service outlets, as well as
basement parking for 2 400 cars. It is home
to a six-screen Ster Kinekor Cinema complex,
gym and now a major hotel.
The development of Newtown Junction
represents the first significant injection in the
Joburg CBD in 40 years and is part of a key
urban regeneration initiative. Highlighting
the significance and cutting edge nature
of the development, Newtown Junction
took top honours in the 2015 SA Property
Owner’s Association (SAPOA) Annual Inno-
vative Excellence in Property Development
Awards. Newtown Junctionwas declared the
overall winner, after also scooping awards for
best mixed-use development and the overall
transformation award.
PROPERTY
Corobrik MD Dirk Meyer says that while
masonry construction presented a unique
value proposition to Government it presented
a sound product choice for young families managing
debt, with limited capital for maintenance.
Corobrik face brick is an aesthetically appealing,
high quality product with its roots deep in South
Africa’s building fabric, does not accrue painting bills
every three years or so and possesses sound environ-
mental credentials.
The country was experiencing growth in construc-
tion of homes between R500 000 and R2-million
targeting the emerging middle-class.
"This is the townhouse market that virtually
disappeared in 2008 and now is making a comeback.
It offers significant growth opportunities as outside that
arena, there has been only a slow, gradual increase in
the number of plans passed," Meyer says.
Houses between R100 000 and R350 000 falling
within the government subsidised housing segment
catered to a different market, but also one in which
Government have been falling behind its targets.
However, recent government initiatives were aimed at
boosting delivery which signalled an opportunity for
growth and market penetration for Corobrik.
During 2015 Corobrik grew its volumes and profits,
albeit it in single digits, while competitors were
backsliding. Consequently, Meyer says Corobrik was
outperforming the trend, but acknowledges the pie was
growing slowly – individual companies were largely
boosting turnover at the expense of competitor market
shares. Corobrik's direct competitors in the paving and
facebrick market had shrunk, meaning the company
was currently competing at amore intense level against
glass, plaster and paint and fabricated alternate walling
systems seeking share of the market.
Meyer says the Gauteng and Eastern Cape Govern-
ments had been building schools and indications
were that KwaZulu-Natal was coming to the fore
with its school infrastructure development initiatives.
This bodes well for the coming year as the company
supplied a significant share of the of South Africa's
Governments social infrastructure programs from
schools to hospitals and clinics.
"The municipal elections this year will provide
impetus as municipalities experience some urgency
to deliver before their voters head for the polls. One
example is the cycle tracks being installed in Soweto
and Tembisa – good potential business for Corobrik.”
However, load shedding last year had posed signif-
icant challenges and might present a constraint on
future growth. Without power, buildings could not be
constructed and, while there were building projects
aiming to come off the national grid, this was still a
specialised niche. "The current stability of the power
supply has been a positive factor," Meyer says.
KEY COMPONENT
FOR 2016
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The three-star hotel is the latest
addition to the award-winning
85 000m² Newtown Junction shop-
ping, leisure and office development, which is
jointly owned by Atterbury Property Holdings
and JSE-listed Attacq Limited. Atterbury
Property Developments led the project and
secured JSE-listed City Lodge Hotel Group
to operate the hotel.
This is City Lodge Hotel Group’s first hotel
in the Joburg CBD and the first big-branded
hotel to open in the city centre in more than
two decades.
“Newtown Junction’s hospitality offering
has been upped significantly with the
opening of the new City Lodge Hotel. The
hotel, together with Newtown Junction’s
exciting new restaurants and leisure offer-
ings, elevates it as a hotspot in the CBD for
shopping, business and tourists too,” says
James Ehlers, managing director of Atterbury
Property Developments.
“We are proud to have worked with
the City Lodge Hotel Group on this great
development. The new hotel at Newtown
Junction represents a further realisation
of our vision of creating a true mixed-use
property development that transforms this
historic part of the Joburg CBD,” he adds.
This is the third City Lodge Hotel that
Atterbury Property Developments have
developed. The first was the 205-room City
Lodge Hotel Lynnwood, which opened in
2010 at the Lynnwood Bridge Shopping
Centre in Pretoria. Atterbury then completed
the 149-room City Lodge Hotel Waterfall
City in late 2014 – which is the first hotel
within the Waterfall mega development in
the centre of Gauteng.
ANOTHER LANDMARK HOTEL
DEVELOPMENT
Corobrik believes further
developments in South Africa's
affordable housing market and
investments in social infrastructure
are key to positive prospects for
2016, with the clay brick and paving
manufacturer and distributor seeking
to add to the value of South Africa’s
infrastructure stock .
A new 148-room City Lodge Hotel has opened at Newtown
Junction – Atterbury Property Developments’ ground-breaking
R1,4-billion mixed-use development in the Joburg CBD.
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