Property development company Atterbury has started the internal works at the first of two properties at its Richmond Park mixed-use development in the Western Cape – the site of the biggest land restitution in the province.
 
“The first two developments at Richmond Park will be for CTM and Cape Fruit Coolers. These deals have triggered the start of the internal services installation and have allowed us to appoint Burger and Wallace as the contractor for this portion of the work,” noted head of Atterbury Western Cape Gerrit van den Berg in a statement released on Thursday.
 
Richmond Park is a multibillion-rand mixed-use property development in Milnerton, Cape Town, being developed by majority shareholder Atterbury and its partners, including the Richmond Park Communal Property Association, as well as property development companies Qubic 3 Dimensional Property and Bethel Property.
 
One of the largest property developments in Cape Town, Richmond Park’s 300 000m2 of greenfield development rights are on an 84 ha site that is part of the milestone land restitution settlement.
 
The land is owned by the Richmond Park Community who were forcibly removed from the land between 1972 and 1984.

In 2014, Richmond Park was transferred back to the community, including some 401 families representing 5 300 people spanning five generations.

The Richmond Park Community has leased the land to the Richmond Park Development Company and now has a 25% shareholding in the development company.
 
“It has been an eight-year journey since winning the tender and we are delighted that development at Richmond Park is entering its next phase and that this vision is becoming a reality,” he said.
 
Cape Fruit Coolers’ site spans 3.5 ha on which a 17 000 m2 facility will be developed in phases. 

Tile retailer CTM has acquired 9 500 m2 of land at Richmond Park. Its new 5 000 m2 retail and distribution centre keeps it close to customers, but has the added benefit of visibility owing to its N7 highway frontage.
 
The preparation of both sites began on August 1 and is due for completion in March 2017. The top structures are expected to be complete by November 2017 and May 2018.
 
The deals are expected to be a catalyst for further development and have assisted the developers in achieving important hurdles.
   
Over the next five to ten years, during the development’s construction, Richmond Park should create some 15 000 jobs.
 
Already, 120 people have graduated with new skills as part of The Richmond Park Treasury Trust skills development programme and more than 30 employment opportunities have been created so far.