R113m shopping centre set to open early next year off Plattekloof Road
Category Developments
A R113 million new convenience retail centre will open at Atterbury's Richmond Park development, the site of the biggest land restitution in the Western Cape, in April 2020.
Adding to the superb convenience of this Cape Town business park, the new 6,500m2 Richmond Corner will feature much-loved names like Pick n Pay, Woolworths Food, Clicks, Vide e Café and Burger King and KFC drive-throughs among its 20 shops.
Epitomising convenience, Richmond Corner is located on the highly visible corner of Plattekloof and Tygerberg Valley roads, right at the N7 highway off-ramp. It will have three different access and egress points, making it easy to slip in and out of this modern, quality open-air shopping centre.
Richmond Park is the prime business site on the N7 corridor with unmatched visibility and access on a four-lane road from both the N7 and N1 highways. It benefits from the City of Cape Town's recent R100m upgrade of Plattekloof Road which intersects with Tygerberg Valley Road, which is also currently undergoing improvements and should be finished by the end of the year.
It is a multi billion Rand mixed-use development in Milnerton, Cape Town, by major shareholder Atterbury and its partners the Richmond Park Communal Property Association (CPA), Old Mutual Properties, Qubic 3 Dimensional Property and Bethel Property.
One of the largest property developments in Cape Town, Richmond Park's 300,000m2 of greenfield development rights are on an 84ha site that is part of the milestone land restitution settlement. The land is owned by the Richmond Park Community who were forcibly removed from it between 1972 and 1984. In 2014, the land transferred back to the Community, some 401 families representing 5,300 people spanning five generations. The Richmond Park Community leased the land to the Richmond Park Development Company and has a 25% shareholding in the development company.
Gerrit van den Berg, who heads Atterbury's Western Cape operations, says, "Richmond Park is growing fast and Richmond Corner is designed to be the perfect answer for everyday convenience shopping. It is ideal for everyone working in the park, as well people in its immediate community and commuters, especially anyone who needs to pick-up their groceries on the way home to nearby Bothasig, Richwood, Burgundy, Plattekloof its surrounds and even the commuters to Durbanville."
Van den Berg adds, "Including a convenience shopping centre in a development that is particularly popular with large-scale cold storage, warehousing and distribution centres is an unconventional move. However, it's one of several ways that we are approaching this development differently to really meet modern business and lifestyle needs. Richmond Corner will have the perfect mix of retail to serve the park and the surrounding community, and is already 95% let."
The first wave of development at Richmond Park began in the North precinct where the latest building completed is Cape Fruit Coolers' phased 8,500m2 facility on a 3.5ha site. CTM, the well-known tile, taps and bathroom brand has opened the doors of its new 4,000m2 retail and distribution centre on a 9,500m2 stand. Mustek, the largest assembler and supplier of personal computers in SA, is also working from its new 4,000m2 office and warehouse premises is on a 5,324m2 site at Richmond Park.
Facilities currently under construction at Richmond Park include 3,000m2 and 5,000m2 for ICT and telecommunications distributor Scoop and electrical sector specialist ACDC Dynamics, respectively.
A further four developments will start shortly. They include 5,000m2 for specialised food importer and distributor Hume International, 3,500m2 for decorative surface product developer and supplier Max on Top, 5,000m2 for ICT distributor Corex and 7,000m2 for cold chain specialist Sequence Logistics in conjunction with RPP.
So far, a milestone ten developments have been given the green light at Richmond Park, and another two buildings in the North precinct are at an advanced planning stage.
Added to that, services are being installed in the South precinct, around Richmond Corner, which, when completed in January 2020, will unlock further opportunities for development near the convenience shopping centre. These sites are ideal for big-box retail and showrooms as well as distribution hubs serving physical and digital retailers.
Reinforcing its fresh approach to a development of this scale, Richmond Park is envisaged to accommodate a full range of users in addition to large operations. Plans include developing mini-warehouse units ranging in size from 1,000sqm to 4,000sqm in the Central precinct.
Van den Berg also reveals that The Sheds, a sectional title office scheme, is on the cards for Richmond Park. The Sheds' sectional title offices are expected to range from 150sqm to 3,000sqm.
"We have experienced a steady uptick in interest for business space in recent months, and Richmond Park is responding to this demand with developments that make sense to the market and modern users," he says. "Richmond Park is an extraordinary development and Atterbury believes in its vision as passionately today as we did when we began the project over a decade ago.
Author: PropertyWheel_G
