Projects Magazine

As 2018 draws to a close, Sandton Central can look back on a remarkable year of highlights. “2018 was a time of growth, improvement and celebration for Sandton Central and those who live, work, invest, shop, stay and play in South Africa’s cosmopolitan centre of commerce and culture. The year wasn’t without its challenges, but it also held many high notes,” says Sandton Central Management District (SCMD) City Improvement Management Elaine Jack. With 2018 marking Madiba’s centenary, several iconic celebrations and events were held in his name in Sandton Central. One that leaves a lasting legacy in the community is the global art-for-change initiative, iMadiba Project, which will expand Sandton Central’s public art urban furniture programme. It will add two new functional art benches to the district, one at Nelson Mandela Square and the other at the JSE. On the business front, a total of 132,400sqm of new office space was constructed in Sandton Central. Among the most significant de...

The holiday season is the ideal time to rest and recharge after a tough year, but many entrepreneurs find themselves unable to disconnect from the hustle despite being totally depleted of energy. Extreme stress, lack of sleep, constant uncertainty, social isolation; these are things that entrepreneurs know all too well. This can quickly lead to a destructive cycle of toxic behaviour, which is the reason why entrepreneurs should be especially careful when it comes to their mental wellness. At the final Entrepreneurship To The Point Session of 2018 hosted by Property Point, the Growthpoint Properties initiative, entrepreneurial wellness came under the microscope. Social entrepreneur and advocate for future business Lesley Donna Williams shared her personal story of dealing with mental and emotional issues as a result of work. Lesley is CEO at Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct, owner of Lesley Donna Williams Consulting and founder of Impact Hub Johannesburg in 2010 - the firs...

The improper disposal of waste is one of the fastest growing risks to our planet and way of life. Rotting food leads to increases in methane gasses as the food decomposes in landfills. To address this, the City of Cape Town plans to start banning wet waste from its landfills from 2022. The Waste Transformers from the Netherlands and South Africa’s own JSE-listed international property company Growthpoint Properties have united to help take on this challenge. They are leveraging end-of-pipeline food waste from shopping malls and adopting a de-centralised approach to organic waste. An on-site, anaerobic digester has been installed at Growthpoint’s N1 City Mall in Cape Town, which is processing the waste from the mall to generate clean methane. This methane is consumed by an internal combustion engine to produce green electricity and hot water for the shopping centre. A fertiliser is also created, which will be used for the mall’s gardens. It is an on-site, smart, green, transporta...

Brokk, the world’s leading manufacturer of remote-controlled demolition machines, hires Ted Graser as its southeast regional sales manager. Graser manages sales for both Brokk robotic demolition machines and the company’s Aquajet Systems AB hydrodemolition robots. He provides support to customers throughout Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and the Carolinas. “Ted’s sales and equipment experience are a valuable asset to our team,” said Peter Bigwood, Brokk vice president of sales and marketing. “His knowledge of the southeast region and drive to help service customers gives him valuable insight when it comes to building and maintaining relationships.” Graser joins Brokk with 25 years of construction and industrial equipment sales experience, including managing international territories for Link-Belt Excavators, a U.S.-based heavy construction equipment manufacturer; Time Manufacturing Company, a Texas-based manufacturer of aerial lifts; and Sennebogen, a German material handlin...

Wits, NWU and SUN also claim honours at the Greenovate Awards 2018 The University of Cape Town (UCT) has won the Greenovate Property Award 2018 and the Greenovate Engineering Award 2018, taking top place in both streams of the prestigious Greenovate Awards. This is the second year in a row that UCT has taken top honours in both Awards, demonstrating continued outstanding leadership in environmentally innovative thinking for the built environment. THE GREENOVATE AWARDS The Greenovate Awards is a joint venture initiative between Growthpoint Properties and the Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA), launched in 2015. This student programme aims to educate and reward the young minds and future leaders of South Africa for innovation and green building in the built environment. The programme has two streams: the Greenovate Property Awards, offered for the fourth time in 2018, and the Greenovate Engineering Awards, now in its second year. A total of eight universities competed...

Polish property owner EPP released 3rd quarter results for the nine months ended September 2018 indicating net property income is up 37% year on year to EUR 102.2 million. The JSE-listed company said earnings available for distribution per share were at EUR 8.75 cents, and the company is on track to meet its stated guidance of EUR 11.6-11.8 cents per share. Hadley Dean, CEO of EPP, said: “Operationally the business continues to perform well with like-for-like net rental income (NRI) growth for the nine months of 4.2%”. EPP CFO Jacek Baginski added: “We are pleased with the results and expect to deliver strong returns to our shareholders for the full year.” EPP’s net asset value for the period was EUR 990.8 million, equalling NAV per share of EUR 1.33, and up from a NAV of EUR 1.20 in the comparable quarter in 2017. The company completed the acquisition of the Marcelin shopping centre in Poznan during the quarter, and together with the completion of the first tranche of M1, this adde...

Haver & Boecker, a leading equipment manufacturer and solutions provider in mining and aggregates applications, offers a conversion kit for older model H-Class vibrating screens. H-Class models V-50 and older can be updated to the current V-85 H-Class model to reduce operating noise to levels below 100 dBA, gain better control over the running frequency and decrease maintenance costs by as much as 50 percent. The H-Class’ modular design uses pre-engineered components, which allows the machine to be easily configured based on an operation’s requirements. The machine is effective for screening hot materials, such as phosphate, potash and asphalt. The V-85 conversion kit can be installed in one day. The package includes the heavy-duty welded bridge, A/C drives, controls and optional rubber dust covers for hot or cold applications. “As an industry leader, we offer our customers an array of services and upgrades to improve their equipment and add value to their processes, which is w...

Wits, NWU and SUN also claim honours at the Greenovate Awards 2018 The University of Cape Town (UCT) has won the Greenovate Property Award 2018 and the Greenovate Engineering Award 2018, taking top place in both streams of the prestigious Greenovate Awards. This is the second year in a row that UCT has taken top honours in both Awards, demonstrating continued outstanding leadership in environmentally innovative thinking for the built environment. THE GREENOVATE AWARDS The Greenovate Awards is a joint venture initiative between Growthpoint Properties and the Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA), launched in 2015. This student programme aims to educate and reward the young minds and future leaders of South Africa for innovation and green building in the built environment. The programme has two streams: the Greenovate Property Awards, offered for the fourth time in 2018, and the Greenovate Engineering Awards, now in its second year. A total of eight universities competed...

Business accelerator Property Point and four of its small business graduates dominated this year’s SA Business Incubation Conference Awards. Together they won three of the six categories and walked away with a total of five awards. The award winners were announced at the South African Business Incubation Conference held in November and hosted by the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) in partnership with the Department of Small Business Development (DSBD). Minister of Small Business Development, Lindiwe Zulu, presented the awards. The awards recognise and encourage best practice in the enterprise development space. Their winners encapsulate the heart of the enterprise development ecosystem. The award categories consider the variety of programmes that have benefited from various Seda and DSBD initiatives. Property Point, the Growthpoint initiative, won Accelerator of the Year for its exemplary programme. It earned the award based on its unique model, innovation, outputs, fund...

Work on the Vaal River System rehabilitation project, in Sebokeng, is now under way after a technical team from the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) completed its assessments, Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has said. Following the deployment by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni of SANDF technical teams to restore infrastructure, including dysfunctional plants and substations, at the polluted Vaal River system, the team has, over the past three to four weeks, assessed the issues and produced a final report on what needs to be done going forward. The defence force embarked on rehabilitation assistance in October after it emerged that the communities in Vereeniging, Sebokeng, Boipatong and Sharpeville face alleged water pollution caused by raw sewage flowing into the river from pump stations in the Emfuleni municipality. While there is a lot of rehabilitation work ahead, owing to a range of challenges, including a lack of maintenance, ageing infr...

Gold and copper miner Newmont Mining has declared commercial production at the Subika underground mine in Ghana – its third completed expansion project for the year. The $186-million Subika underground project will expand the production of the Ahafo mine, producing an average of 150 000 oz/y to 200 000 oz/y for the first five years of its initial ten-year mine life. Combined with completion of the Ahafo Mill Expansion project expected in the second half of next year, Ahafo’s average annual all-in sustaining costs are projected to improve by between $250/oz and $350/oz, compared with 2016. “In addition to increasing gold production and lowering costs at Ahafo, Subika underground leverages the operation’s existing infrastructure and experienced workforce to further extend mine life,” Newmont CEO Gary Goldberg commented in a news release on Monday. He added that the mine provided an underground platform to explore additional upside potential in adjacent orebodies and also included som...

The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) on Monday committed its members to implement the United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Speaking at the UN Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights, ICMM CE Tom Butler announced the industry body's new performance expectations that will "define what mining with principles looks like in practice", by setting a benchmark for the industry’s environmental and social performance. The performance expectations, which will apply to all ICMM members, were developed with extensive input from nongovernmental organisations, international organisations and academics. “ICMM’s council of 27 CEOs have shown real leadership in being the first industry body to commit to implementing the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. “Importantly, other companies will also be able to publicly commit to our performance expectations and I hope this will lead the broader industry to further impro...

Deputy President William Ruto has urged youths to enrol in local vocational centres to learn masonry and other courses to benefit from the Big Four agenda. Speaking at Ol Kalou in Nyandarua county on Monday, he said 2,000 units will be built in the area under the affordable housing plan. Ruto said there is enough space to build 3,000 more houses in the county. The programme will begin early next year. “We are targetting 10,000 local youths to benefit through providing various services, including masonry, carpentry and plumbing, among others,” he said. Ruto urged local MPs to ensure young people are prepared to undertake this task. He said youths should enrol in technical training institutes and pursue courses running from three months to one year to get the requisite skills. Ruto said the Jubilee government will invest heavily in various projects to develop Nyandarua. roads, electricity Other target areas are roads, water, power connection and agriculture. “...we agreed that Nyandarua ...

The city of Johannesburg said on Friday the first phase of a development in Bramley, in which its planning department had an imput, was now complete. It said mayor Herman Mashaba would on Monday join Africrest Properties in opening the Village and Spark School Development in the suburb. "The derelict and run down 30 000 square metre property in Bramley was developed with eager input from the city’s development planning department," it said. "The city saw a great opportunity to have input on the layout and design of the development to ensure a more responsible and responsive end product that strikes a balance between the pressure of the area-based transformation and existing communities." Phase 1 of the project includes a school and 200 affordable apartments.

Construction of some suspended buildings is going on without supervision, Public Works PS Paul Maringa said yesterday. More than 3,000 construction sites have been suspended by the National Construction Authority. The suspension notices are being ignored. A majority of these projects are in Nairobi, especially in informal settlements such as Huruma and Githurai. Maringa said those who defy the notices will be met with the full force of the law. “The law is clear on what is needed when it comes to construction. We cannot allow anyone to carry out construction without approvals,” he said. Maringa said the government will “not compromise on non-compliance with the law.” He spoke to the press in his office. He said all copies of suspension notices have been shared with the county government, the police and the DCI. “Measures will be put in place to ensure laws are complied with. Our job is not to demolish but secure lives and properties and time for impunity is over,” Maringa said. Further...