Meet “Mr Joburg” - The man reviving downtown Johannesburg one building at a time

Key topics:Olitzki revitalises Johannesburg CBD, turning slums into profitable zones.Gandhi Square hosts businesses catering to 250,000 daily commuters.Private efforts clash with city neglect, crime, and socio-economic challenges..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Prinesha Naidoo and Antony Sguazzin.The decline of Johannesburg’s old central business district — once home to some of the world’s top mining firms — is among the most high-profile globally. But as in other struggling downtown areas, private investors have spotted opportunity to create profitable oases of order, reversing decay and neglect where local government and law enforcement failed.Gerald Olitzki is widely regarded as the leading such investor in South Africa’s commercial hub – a reputation that’s earned him the nickname “Mr. Joburg.”The lawyer turned property developer has worked for more than three decades to reclaim the southwest of the CBD from slumlords, making it safe, clean and functional — all at a profit..The stretch of more than 10 city blocks that he oversees centers on Gandhi Square — a transport hub through which more than 250,000 people travel daily, many on their way from the township of Soweto on the southwestern outskirts of the city to their workplaces in affluent northern Johannesburg. Bank ATMs and fast-food outlets, including McDonald’s and Hungry Lion, line the thronging plaza. Chain retailers Dis-Chem and Spar run busy operations, while an Adidas store, hair salons, nail bars and a buzzing gym attract clients..Read more:.Paul Maritz: The five urgent reforms that can save Johannesburg.Aside from the strip Olitzki manages — supplying private security and cleaners, and banning street vendors — and precincts that are maintained by three of the nation’s biggest banks, the city center is mostly a collection of slums, characterized by high levels of crime and piles of uncollected refuse.Criminal syndicates have hijacked about 180 buildings, and they’re illegally occupied by squatters who pay them rent, according to the city.To many — including those in Johannesburg’s administration — Olitzki’s approach is a model for how to revitalize derelict regions, with the city bestowing many accolades on him, including a lifetime achievement award in 2011. Watching the economic effects of so-called White flight plague the city as the end of apartheid neared, Olitzki bought his first building 36 years ago and now oversees about 300,000 square meters (3.2 million square feet) of floor space.“By fleeing, they literally left a vacuum,” Olitzki, 74, said of White business owners before a lunchtime walk where he made notes of snags like squeaky door hinges and loose paving. “I caught the beginning of the decline and then I really feasted on the absolute decline of the city.”“We like to think — and perhaps it’s a bit arrogant — that we’re part of the revival, certainly of this section.”.City officials — facing accusations of fruitless and wasteful spending and beset in recent years by in-fighting — haven’t been able stem the decay of downtown Johannesburg since the end of White-minority rule in 1994. With capital and many firms leaving the district, some properties became vacant and fell into disrepair, leaving them vulnerable to illegal occupation and vandalism.With widespread graft and political instability plaguing the metro of almost 5 million people that accounts for about 15% of South Africa’s gross domestic product, service delivery had stalled, resulting in thousands of potholes, frequent utility outages, poor policing and violent service-delivery protests. It has gone through 10 mayoral changes since liberation icon Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress party lost its majority for the first time in 2016. Ahead of local government elections next year, a precarious ANC-led coalition presiding over the city has asked the country’s biggest business-lobby group to help rescue the metro. The rival Democratic Alliance has fielded Helen Zille — who spearheaded the revival of Cape Town as its leader — as its candidate for the job.Seeing the opportunity, Olitzki in 1998 convinced the City of Johannesburg to grant his company a 45-year lease over the plaza then known as Van der Bijl Square. In about 2001, they renamed it after Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of India’s independence movement who worked for two decades as a lawyer in South Africa — including a stint in an office on the eponymous square — and in 1908 got a two-month prison sentence for disobeying laws making it compulsory for him to carry a certificate denoting his race. .Under the oversight of Olitzki Property Holdings, the square is now home to small offices, housing family lawyers, doctors, and mom-and-pop shops often owned by entrepreneurs who wouldn’t otherwise be able to access the financing needed to start a formal business. “I sat with people on a one-to-one basis,” said Olitzki, who did his legal training in a building — the first he bought in 1989 — on the square he now runs. “If they seem to have a decent business plan, we gave them the space.” .New developers are also investing in the precinct, with some converting old office buildings into budget-friendly accommodation.While others have attempted to revive downtown Johannesburg, most have failed. Some projects, such as the Maboneng Precinct, have fizzled as the collection of expensive restaurants and bars and boutique shops struggled to hold the attention of a rich clientele from the suburbs who tired of the novelty. .Read more:.Johannesburg’s decline spurs business talks on city rescue.“I welcome anybody who can do sustainable initiatives,” said Olitzki. “But if there’s a new initiative that gets a lot of publicity and peters out, that’s very bad because then we’ve got to deal with fallout.”The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa, a non-profit that provides legal advice and advocacy on housing, as well as access to services for marginalized people, says the state should drive the vision and development of the inner city given that profit doesn't typically motivate its goals on issues such as providing affordable housing. The challenge with private-sector initiatives “is that they tend to be exclusionary and drive poor people out of the city,” said Edward Molopi, a spokesman for SERI. The organization supports such projects as long as they “remain accessible to the poor and working class within the city,” he said. Noting that there are about 1 million people going in and out of Johannesburg daily, Olitzki says it’s imperative to cater to their daily needs rather than those who don’t regularly travel through and work in the city. “You can either try and make things for them, or you can try bring in high-end restaurants that no one in the area would ever possibly afford.”.Olitzki’s ability to understand the market the precinct caters for is key to his success, says Brian Azizollahoff, an industry veteran who is the managing director of Unico Property Group and headed up the now-defunct property unit of mining giant Anglo American, which used to own prime downtown properties such as the Carlton Centre.“Gerald is the doyen of the CBD,” he says. “He recognized that the city couldn’t be turned around to its original state, but that it could become something new.”Velefini Qwabe, 40, shares the philosophy of ensuring his products match what his clientele needs. He runs a busy franchise of the Spar supermarket group in the precinct, selling inexpensive hot meals such as stewed chicken feet, ox liver and steamed dumplings that are popular with shoppers. “I usually see my customers three times a day — for breakfast, lunch and at home time,” Qwabe said, adding that the majority of his 120,000 monthly patrons pass through the square by bus. .Today, Olitzki’s approach is seen as a model for urban revival. Private-property owners have over the years asked him to run similar projects elsewhere including in Durban, South Africa’s third-biggest city, but he has declined, choosing to keep his focus on Gandhi Square. Key to his success is his approach to dealing with illegal tenants: While other landlords have cleared buildings of squatters through lengthy and costly legal battles and forced evictions, Olitzki negotiates directly with them and pays them to move. “Am I suggesting that we actually solved the problem?” for the city, Olitzki asks. “We didn’t solve the problem. They went and they occupied another building.” While he’s coy about how much money he has invested, Olitizki says his venture has been profitable. “There’s a massive gap” between what he spent and what the assets are now worth, he says..Read more:.Johannesburg’s traffic lights are crumbling, leaving streets in chaos.The precinct is now home to several government departments including the office of the premier of Gauteng, the province that’s home to Johannesburg, and Olitzki’s company is restoring a number of historical buildings..One of those is the old Chamber of Mines headquarters, where decades-old furniture still adorns the Oak Room, named after a tree in downtown Johannesburg under which mining magnates met during the 1880s when the gold rush that led to the city’s establishment began. Olitzki plans to continue expanding at the measured pace he credits for being behind his success — “building by building.”There’s a perception “that the city is dead,” he says. “But anybody who walks in our section can’t say that the city’s dead.”.© 2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Meet “Mr Joburg” - The man reviving downtown Johannesburg one building at a time

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