Mixed-use development set to change the scene in Cape Town

Richmond Park, a new multi-billion rand mixed-use development launched yesterday, is set to become a prominent landmark in Western Cape on a prime greenfields site in Milnerton adjacent to the N7 highway. Atterbury Property will be developing the project on 84ha of land as a business park and mixed-use precinct consisting of retail, light industrial, commercial and warehousing properties. The property has bulk development rights of around 300,000sqm over the next 5-10 years and the developers intend to invest about R5 billion over this period. “This is certainly going to be a mega development. It will be along the lines of the Atterbury initiated Waterfall development in Gauteng, but will focus more on commercial and warehousing due to its location in Cape Town’s industrial hub of Milnerton,” says Gerrit van den Berg, Atterbury’s development manager for its Western Cape developments. The land is owned by the Richmond Park Communal Property Association and has been leased to Atterbury and two community developers. “While Atterbury is the major shareholder, we are undertaking this development in Cape Town in association with local partners Bethel Property and Qubic 3 Dimensional Property. The land on which Richmond Park will be developed is part of a landmark land restitution settlement,” adds Van den Berg. Richard Glass of Bethel Property, explains: “About 400 families were forcibly removed from this land in 1972 and resettled in Atlantis and the Cape Flats." These families today represent around 5 300 people spanning five generations. They finally had the land transferred back to them in December 2014 in the form of a community trust (the Richmond Park Communal Property Association)” said Mr Glass. The association decided to lease the land to the developers, and in exchange received a 25% shareholding in the consortium called the Richmond Park Development Company. Atterbury is the company behind Gauteng’s Waterfall City, one of the largest and most expensive mixed-use development in Gauteng. The company is part-owned by capital-growth focused listed property fund Attacq. Historically Atterbury developed assets that Attacq then brought into its investment portfolio.