Despite the fact that our water situation is still a tad precarious, the City of Cape Town has approved building plans to the value of R20,4 billion.

This is apparently in response to the fact that Cape Town is growing as more people relocate in search of new opportunities.

Also, we have a beach and don’t have to chain our cars to street poles, so that’s a plus.

The city’s mayoral committee member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Marian Niewoudt, said that her department had also approved 8 760 land use applications, reports BusinessTech.

“Some within the development and construction industry often claim that ‘red tape’ and ‘City bureaucracy’ are preventing, delaying, or hampering their industries, and subsequent investment in our local economy.

“On the other hand, some residents are opposed to new developments. They want their neighbourhoods to retain the character it had 20 years ago, despite the fact that more people are relocating to Cape Town and that the growing population must be catered for,” she said.

The “residents opposed to new developments” might be a shady reference to the protests that happened in the Bo-Kaap last year.

Anyway, let’s get a look at what’s on the cards in the near future:

New tallest building

The building soon to become the tallest in Cape Town – the Zero-2-One Tower – is expected to launch soon.

The R1.3 billion city centre project is located on the corner of Adderley and Strand Streets, and is being led by developers FWJK.

Zero 2 One Tower, at 44 storeys, will become the tallest building in Cape Town and will comprise 570 apartments and 7,000 sqm of retail shops on ground level and station concourse level.

Let the apartment bidding begin.

Airport upgrades

This is a good thing. The airport needs an upgrade.

These upgrades will include:

• The refurbishment of the domestic arrivals terminal;
• The expansion of the international terminal;
• A new realigned runway worth R3.93 billion which will achieve the runway realignment that will in the future allow for the expansion of the terminals;
• The new runway will allow the airport to increase its per hour landing and departures from 30 to 45 aircraft movements;
• It will allow the airport to handle the new generation large aircraft such as the Boeing 747-800 or the A380 aircrafts.

The new projects are planned over the next five years, with more than R7 billion in investment expected to take place over this period.

A new skyscraper – modelled after a Rubik’s cube

This is officially the most hipster thing ever.

Property developer Abland, in partnership with Giflo and Nedbank, will construct a new mixed use skyscraper in the Mother City – The Rubik – which will include premium office space and luxury apartments.

The building has been designed by architect firm dhk, and features a stacked glassed tower block which, as the name suggests, angulates at various points to represent cubes.

The building is set to be completed in 2021 and will cost in the region of R480 million.

Ratanga redevelopment

Ratanga Junction closed officially in 2018, and we’ve all been wondering what was going to happen to it.

The land will be redeveloped into a vibrant new mixed-use precinct of around 120 000 square metres.

The new precinct plan for the site, which includes residential apartments, a retirement component, a hotel, restaurant and offices all set around beautiful water bodies and a large public park, has been approved by the City of Cape Town.

Another luxury gated community.

New plots for cannabis 

Eager to get ahead of what is currently a largely untapped sector in South Africa, the city has set land aside for the growth of medical cannabis.

The set-up of the facility will bring with it an investment of R638 million in capital expenditure during the construction of phase one, the city said.

Additionally, a further R1.5 billion will be invested during phase two which is expected to commence in 2023.

They also predict that by the end of phase two, they will have created 250 job opportunities.

Now we hope that the city can pull all of this off without displacing or financially excluding large sections of the population.

Fingers crossed.

[source:businesstech]