JSE-listed real estate investment trust Growthpoint Properties’ Cintocare specialised surgical hospital development, in Pretoria, has become the first healthcare property, or the first facility of its kind in South Africa, and Africa, to be awarded a Green Star rating.

Cintocare received a five-Green Star Customer Healthcare design certification from the Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA).

Green Star South Africa rating tools provide an objective measurement for green buildings in South Africa and Africa, which recognise and reward environmental leadership in the property industry.

Working closely together to develop this specialist surgical hospital, Growthpoint and Cintocare are creating a tailor-made, high-performance space, which includes positive social and environmental impacts, essentially creating a clinical centre of excellence. 

GBCSA CEO Lisa Reynolds says earning South Africa’s first Custom Healthcare Green Star rating for Cintocare Hospital continues Growthpoint’s record of exceptional green building leadership and displays Cintocare’s innovation.

“Together, they are creating a sustainable healthcare facility designed around the wellbeing of patients and hospital staff that supports the environment and its communities, which is changing the future of healthcare properties in South Africa.”

The benefits of this particular project go beyond a single hospital, and the collaboration between Growthpoint, Cintocare, GBCSA, and the professional team has resulted in a new green building certification tool for the healthcare and property sectors, to which consultancy Solid Green also contributed its expertise.

This green certification tool is a roadmap to drive the development of more green healthcare buildings in South Africa in future and is available to everyone.

Construction of the R470-million specialist hospital began in July 2018 and is on track for completion in the final quarter of this year, despite the Covid-19-related lockdown in South Africa.

The year-long planning for the project included the comprehensive collaboration of its operators, doctors, promoters, developers, owners, green partners and other stakeholders.

The hospital will focus primarily on head and neck, spinal, neuro and vascular surgery with its highly specialised medical professionals supported by state-of-the-art technology.

Through setting new standards for sustainability in the South African healthcare sector, Cintocare Hospital’s green building rating was achieved through an architectural design that incorporates many sustainable design principles, Growthpoint states.

The development is in Pretoria’s green precinct of Menlyn Maine, it adds.

The building design itself will support the surgeons’ optimal delivery of specialised services, accommodate and operate specialised state-of-the-art equipment and deliver a world-class facility for patients.

Designed to the highest international standards, the hospital includes seven floors; the hospital plant room, three clinical and consulting levels and three parking levels with 335 secure parking bays. This 100-bed hospital, with capacity to expand to 160 beds, incorporates five theatres, of which three are banked and one is a hybrid theatre.

The exterior of the building reflects its fundamental purpose, meaning that the glass façade also serves to shade the building, and will be complemented by design features evocative of spinal vertebra found in the neck.

Growthpoint’s partnership with Cintocare has provided Growthpoint Healthcare Property Holdings with the opportunity to own this world-class hospital on completion. It is the first unlisted healthcare fund that invests exclusively in healthcare property assets in South Africa, including hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and laboratories. 

Commenting on the milestone, Growthpoint Healthcare Property Holdings fund manager Dr Linda Sigaba says green healthcare buildings are designed to have positive impacts on their users, their surrounding communities and the environment, and that they are “the future of healthcare properties globally”.