Richmond Park represents the biggest project yet in Cape Town for Atterbury, and is one if the biggest good-news stories to date when it comes to land restitution in South Africa. In just a couple of weeks it all kicks off. Development Manager Gerrit van den Berg shares some of the behind-the-scenes excitement.
When we last spoke, the lease had just been registered in the name of the development company. What has happened since then?
Detailed planning has enabled the implementation of the first phase of the bulk and internal services. The development framework and central precinct plan submissions have been submitted to the City of Cape Town and approval is imminent.
What are you looking forward to most in terms of this project?
Commencement on site will be a big milestone, given the long road since 2008. And it will be a big day indeed when we see the first income coming in and we can start to pay out dividends to the Richmond Park Communal Property Association (CPA). We’re also looking forward to closing deals with most of the impressive list of prospective tenants.
How has the community, those 401 families, been involved in the process?
The community is represented by three committee members in all project-planning meetings. Three of the eight directors of the development company are also community members. Richard Glass, CEO of the Richmond Park Development Company, has told us some wonderful stories from the community in the past nine months since money has started to flow (See “benefiting the community” below). As we commence on the site, a R4.01m contribution to the treasury trust will be made; and 0,5% of all construction cost will also be given to the trust. The intention of the trust will be to provide skills development and education opportunities to the Richmond Park Community.
How big is the Atterbury team involved in the Richmond project? Does it entail anyone relocating for the duration of the project?
We currently have around 10 Atterbury people involved in the project, from development managers, MD, leasing team, marketing and finance people as well as the Atterbury Trust. I will be relocating to the Western Cape in the last quarter of this year.
The land comprises 85 hectares – where does one start with a project of this magnitude?
It takes up a lot of time from a lot of people! Richard Glass has been instrumental in plotting out the process and the programme, and driving it intensely to make sure all the boxes have been ticked. Getting the development framework submitted and finalising the phasing and costings took up most of the initial time since taking transfer of the lease on 18 March 2015. Dealing with the financier and community has also been quite an intense process. The planning process and the finalisation of the land claim, which Atterbury helped the CPA with, took six years. It has taken a lot of time from a number of people within and outside of Atterbury to get to this point.
This page is not long enough to mention and thank everyone who’s been involved and who’s given of their time. One of the most memorable times was when some of the project team were sitting in the Minister’s office in parliament on the evening that a certain political party was asked to leave parliament. Our 18:00 meeting to discuss and negotiate finer details of the transaction with the Minister only started at 23:00 that evening…
What will happen on 8 September, when it launches?
This will only be a brokers’ function to introduce the project to the local brokers’ market. A formal launch and sod-turning ceremony will be arranged for commencement on site, sometime later this year.
It is very early days, but are you already looking at potential tenants? Has there already been early tenant interest?
We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the level of interest in the project by prospective clients, even before we’ve formally launched into the market. We are working on a few proposals already and are hoping to have the first deals signed by the end of September. We need to close a few deals in order to commence. We’ve been especially surprised with the type and size of the tenants showing interest.
Benefiting the community
Richard Glass, CEO of the Richmond Park Development Company, shared some experiences:
“An older woman, an original claimant, who was forcibly removed from the property during the 1974 and 1984 forced removal process, told us of how her children have passed away, and that she now has her three grandchildren living with her. They’ve had no beds and a leaking roof for the last 10 years. She used the first payment to buy them each a bed and repair the leaking roof and then opened up a long-term savings account with an initial deposit of R500 for each grandchild.
Another woman told us how her husband was retrenched weeks before the first payment and they had no money or food left on the day the first payment was made.
The parents of the CPA chairperson are also the pastors of the local church. They’re elderly and have never had a holiday. They are now planning on using the payments to go on a trip and refurbish their house…”
I also have a personal story: at a CPA meeting held in Atlantis a couple of weeks ago, I ran into an elderly lady who used to occasionally babysit my siblings and I when we were young children, must be more than 30 years ago; she was a nanny for friends of our family. She’s now in her 70s and retired, and told me that the payments have made such a difference to her retirement. I was so moved to be involved in this, to be able to give back to her considering all she did for me personally.”
