City of Cape Town announces winning bidder for foreshore redevelopment

12th February 2018

By: African News Agency

  

Font size: - +

The City of Cape Town on Monday announced that Mitchell Du Plessis Associates (MDA) have been chosen as the winning bid for the redevelopment of the Foreshore Freeway Precinct, which includes completing the unfinished flyover that has marked the city's skyline for more than 40 years.

The City said MDA had been selected from seven initial proposals which had been submitted.

MDA’s proposal entails, among others, the completion of the unfinished sections of the freeways, including the connections to and from Helen Suzman Boulevard, and the connections to and from the N1 and N2 freeways.

Furthermore, the proposed development includes a combination of approximately 3 200 market-related residential units and a minimum of 450 affordable residential units.

The build costs of the core development are estimated at R8.3-billion, which includes the new highway infrastructure. The development is to be largely self-funding, the City added.

The project has seen some controversy in the form of allegations that the City's recently suspended planning commissioner was alleged to have favoured a particular proposal, considered the most costly of six that were received.

The plans for the six proposals were exhibited in the Civic Centre in March last year. The public was invited to express a preference as stipulated in terms of the proposal call. These six proposals have subsequently been evaluated by a multidisciplinary Bid Evaluation Committee, which considered the proposals against a list of evaluation criteria prescribed in the Request for Proposal (RfP) documents.

“The core development area is City-owned land and is approximately six hectares in size. It is located under and between the existing foreshore freeway viaducts between the northern edge of the central business district (CBD) and the Cape Town Harbour.

“The other sites that the qualifying bidder has identified as part of their proposed Foreshore Freeway Precinct development are the Ebenezer road maintenance depot, the MyCiTi Prestwich bus depot, the Gallows Hill traffic centre, and the Cape Town International Convention Centre parking garage. All of these properties are owned by the City,” the City said.

It is further said that MDA proposes to complete the unfinished highways and to finance or cross-subsidise the new roads and affordable residential units through the development of upmarket and mid-market residential units. It is proposed that the market-related residential units be located in 11 new tower blocks with heights ranging between 63, 123, and 143 meters with views of the mountain, sea, and harbour. The towers will extend across four precincts within the foreshore area on the strip of land between the new freeways.

“Part of the proposal is also to build another 10 residential buildings on the northern edge closest to the harbour under or between the existing eastbound freeways between DF Malan and Christiaan Barnard Streets. These buildings will host affordable residential units.

“Importantly, the qualifying bidder’s proposal is ecologically sensitive and addresses the impact of the development on the environment with water, energy, and lighting design solutions. Grey water recycling, rainwater harvesting, and water treatment systems are included, as are measures to mitigate the impact of high winds and noise," the City said.

It is anticipated that the building work could commence in 2020, subject to the successful completion of the Stage 2 process, and all mandatory property disposal, development and other statutory processes, and approvals. The City suggested that given scale of the development, it would take at least a decade to come to fruition.

Edited by African News Agency

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION