RABIE PROPERTY GROUP

Cape Town offers investors a degree of certainty, says John Chapman, director of the Rabie Property Group. “The general consensus among property developers in this country is that Cape Town is well-run, there’s a system of rules and people adhere to the rules, and that’s what the industry wants.”

Rabie is the developer of Century City, one of Cape Town’s most desirable mixed-use precincts. Since acquiring the site in 2004, previously a swampland, the company has built a sophisticated “city within a city”, attracting a cross-section of local and international residents and some of the world’s biggest corporates.

In addition to multiple office blocks, the precinct offers a premium shopping complex, Canal Walk, and Cape Town’s only theme park, Ratanga Junction (both built and opened prior to Rabie acquiring the property), as well as a series of high-density residential units and recreational facilities, and a new Urban Square, comprising of a 1 200 seat Conference Centre, a hotel, offices, apartments and restaurants.

Developed at a cost of R1 billion, the Square is Rabie’s flagship project. “It’s the heart and soul of Century City,” says Chapman. “It’s a meeting place for the working folk, our corporates. In addition to the conference centre, which was built in response to market demand, there’s a 125-room hotel and a number of popular restaurants – so there’s life from breakfast to lunch and dinner.”

In 2016, the Square was awarded a 4-Star Green Star Custom Mixed Use Design rating by the Green Building Council of South Africa, the first development in the Western Cape to achieve this.

Three office buildings border the Square, the largest of which is the Apex, an iconic eight-storey building comprising 7 900 square metres of offices.

Global financial and news organisation, Thomson Reuters, has relocated its Cape Town offices to the Apex and is spread over the first three floors while Mastercard has taken the entire fourth floor of the seven storey building, and Derivco, designers of software packages for the online gaming industry, has taken floors five and six. International asset management company, Norfund, occupies most of the top floor.

The second office component is the Matrix, a mixed-use building consisting of ground floor retail/showrooms, three storeys of sectional title offices totalling 4 500 square metres and 51 residential apartments set over a further three storeys. All 24 office suites in this building, with its edgy mix of retro and contemporary architecture, have been sold.

The third office component of the Square is the Annex which comprises 3 000 square metres of offices over 3-and-a-half floors above the conference centre. The Rabie Property Group occupies the top floor of around 1 000 square metres, while Xhibit experiential marketing has taken the first floor. Just over 1 000 square metres has been let to IT Lab on the second floor.

“Cape Town is now one of the most sought-after destinations in the world, says Chapman. “People want to live and work here. Companies want to be based here. It’s the place to be.”