Sandton property investors seem to have the philosophy of “Build it and they will come“. But, while office and retail space continues to go up, Jo’burg’s movers-and-shakers have evidently overlooked transport infrastructure requirements.
If you think it is painful getting to Sandton CBD now, imagine what it will be like when an additional 9 000 cars join you fairly soon on your commute, viewers were warned on CNBC Power Lunch earlier this week.
Biznewz.com‘s editor-in-chief Alec Hogg and his co-host Gugulethu Mfuphi spoke to Craig Hean, MD of commercial real estate specialist Jones Lang LaSalle, and Simon van Jaarsveld, of Arup Consulting Engineers, for their views on what getting to work in Sandton CBD will be like as more properties are completed.
Sandton businesses are thriving but there are no assurances that transport arrangements will be able to keep up with growth. Accessibility to Sandton is still at an early planning stage, it seems, with the City of Johannesburg and Johannesburg Road Agency contemplating the potential long-term impact of property development in the area.
In all, Hean and Van Jaarsveld left the studio with a rather depressing picture for anyone who hates spending more time than should be necessary getting to work – which is most people – and everyone who thinks we should be doing whatever it takes to make South Africa’s most important business district work efficiently. – JC
To watch the CNBC Power Lunch video click here
ALEC HOGG: According to a new study by Jones Lang LaSalle, it’s estimated that the construction of new developments in the Sandton CBD will see more than 9,000 additional cars being added to traffic in the district. Simon van Jaarsveld, Associate of Transportation Planning, and Craig Hean, Managing Director of Jones Lang LaSalle, join us for more. Gents, before we pick up on Sandton: in the area that I live, which is close to Rosebank, the Standard Bank have built a big building and the impact on traffic of the new employees coming in everyday has been horrific. They tell me, only one quarter of the likely employees are there so far. What we see here around Sandton, and these offices, are more buildings going up, more cars going through, do we need to start panicking now?
CRAIG HEAN: Well, in the short term, if we look at the number of new cars that are going to be coming in, and we look at the new development that is being committed to – you can see the cranes if you look along the skylines of Sandton. If we do not think of some ways to improve the ways in which we use our vehicles to get to work, there may be a problem with congestion at some of the more critical intersections at peak times.
GUGULETHU MFUPHI: That is a major concern and given the fact that we know that public transport facilities are not too good, that goes for minibus taxis, but looking at the Gautrain, that has been a definite boost to the Sandton CBD.
CRAIG HEAN: Absolutely I think we have done our studies if we look at the total number of office square metres in the Sandton CBD. Currently we are looking at about 1.5 million square metres and what we have estimated is that over the next three years we are probably going to see a rollout of an additional 400,000. We equate that back to working out how many office commuters are coming into the area on a daily basis. We reckon it is about 100,000. We anticipate it increasing about to 27,000 once all the square metres have been built. The latest report that was put out by the Sandton central management district: about 16,000 to 17,000 users per day currently are coming through the Gautrain train station which means that at the moment 16% to 17% of the population is making use of that facility.
ALEC HOGG: Simon what is the process people go ahead with before building, as they have done in Sandton?
SIMON VAN JAARSVELD: Well obviously they would have to go and do a planning application that is going to the City of Johannesburg and also the Johannesburg Road Agency. What the Johannesburg Road Agency normally do is a study that determines what impact the new development will have on the transport network and then also to propose road upgrades in the vicinity, to accommodate that.
GUGULETHU MFUPHI: Is there space for that?
SIMON VAN JAARSVELD: That is a good question and it is actually the reason why the Johannesburg Agency has asked our company, Arup Consulting, to look at, in terms of how do we keep Sandton accessible over the next couple of decades. The one thing we have always said was you cannot build yourself out of congestion. The one thing is the internal roads you see at the moment. Sandton has got a lot of large city blocks which also makes it very unfriendly for pedestrian movement, but the idea is to break up those blocks by putting in midblock roads. That is what we call them. That is just a part of the solution. Getting into Sandton, the interchange, we know there are backlogs there. There is a plan of upgrading Marlboro drive to make it the more prominent access into Sandton. But this is all road based, what we need to do is look at BRT, the city is already looking at BRT.
ALEC HOGG: Which Is?
SIMON VAN JAARSVELD: The BRT is the Bus Rapid Transport; that is the Rea Vaya planning that you see. It will work at the end – that is what we believe. What I mean by that is at the moment it has been rolled out in stages, the success of it will actually grow as more of this is being rolled out.
ALEC HOGG: It is good news in some way, that the commercial centre of Africa – because that is what Sandton is becoming– is booming. But on the other hand, if it is not going to be carefully managed, and from what Simon is saying, they are only being brought to the party now, we could be hitting problems.
CRAIG HEAN: I think you are quite right. What is that ad on TV at the moment? It’s the Richest Square Mile on the whole of the continent and I think it is still the addressed corporates want to be seen in.
ALEC HOGG: Is it being managed?
CRAIG HEAN: I think to be fair there are plans afoot, if we look at the various city improvement districts, and companies that pay attention to that, and you look at the stakeholders involved in some of the governing boards, they are the owners, they are the guys that have got a vested interest in making the suburb work. As they were referred to earlier, there is an internal flow within Sandton and it is working.
ALEC HOGG: I am sitting in Lagos, got a very successful business and I am looking to come to South Africa to take out office space. Would Sandton be my best?
CRAIG HEAN: Well, it depends on if you want a major corporate exposure, then it is the place to be.
