Changing Jo’burg’s inner city block by block

Imagine a space where you can trade‚ have a business meeting‚ dine‚ have an artist sketch your face and spend a night.

This place is the new No 1 Eloff Street building in the Johannesburg city centre‚ which has been opened to the public.

Situated a few blocks from Gandhi Square the building is one of the most diverse offering in the property market. It has restaurants‚ clubs‚ flats‚ an events hall‚ office space and retail space for hawkers.

No 1 Eloff Street was built in the 1960s. It was originally a car dealership‚ became OK Bazaars and at some stage it housed the ANC Women’s League. When Geoff Jardine‚ director of Molten Black Properties‚ bought the building in 2015 it was a car storage depot.

He converted the middle two floors into 320 flats of one and two bedroom units. The rent ranges from R3500 to R5500.

On the ground floor are restaurants‚ the events hall‚ 1600 square metres of office space‚ bars‚ art studios and cafes.

The retail space on the ground floor goes for R500 a month to more than R4000. Some of the people who have been selling on the inner city’s streets will have access to customers who visit No 1 Eloff Street to go to restaurants and art and other events.

“What we are developing here is a suburb called Joziburg. We have now bought the buildings around us and will be expanding the whole precinct so that it allows the space between the buildings to become public space‚” Jardine said.

“Part of our strategy for inner city buildings is that it does not have to be boring. It might be cheap to rent but it can be fun‚ exciting and lifting.”

But he admitted that conversion of the building came at a price.

“It was more than you can pay off in five life times. It was well over R100-million. We are geared up now to take other properties around us and we are going to spend another R300-million or R400-million in the next three to four years‚” he said.

Jardine said that turning the inner city around will be an arduous task for Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba.

“He has a big ship to turn. There is a lot of hard work [to be done] to get this on track. There is still billing complications but I think there is an intent to get things right.”

Johannesburg MMC for economic development Leah Knott said the development on Eloff Street was evidence that the private sector is willing to invest in the mayor’s vision. Knott said the plan was to develop the city using precincts instead of isolated building revamps.

“You can’t just go develop just one building there and another elsewhere. You need to do precinct plans‚ which means you do developments in blocks. You take four blocks and identify the investment plan for that particular area.

“This allows you not to just bring housing but also retail space‚ social space and whatever facility is needed in that area‚” she said.