Atterbury’s motto “It’s a matter of association” is a true reflection of the value the company places on its partnerships. The Divercity Joburg inner-city redevelopment partnership with Absa is a perfect example of the kind of cooperation Atterbury thrives on and how it lives its brand. We got the view from the other side from Absa’s Wendy Cuthbert, who is in charge of corporate real estate solutions for the bank, and is closely involved with the Divercity deal that will see the redevelopment of the landmark Absa Towers Main building on Main Street in Jozi’s inner city.

Investing in the inner city is a world-wide trend, but Absa never left Jozi inner city. Why was the decision taken to stay, when so many other businesses moved north to Sandton?
Absa took the decision several years ago to maintain its presence in the Johannesburg inner city. We have our client-facing offices in Sandton and two large operations centres in Auckland Park and Pretoria, but our head office has been in the CBD for many years and we’ve been proud to have our logo displayed across the CBD. A significant number of our colleagues also live in the south (65%) and it is more convenient for them to work in the CBD than to travel all the way to Sandton. A number of our colleagues love working in the CBD, although the recent closure of the M2 has tried everyone’s patience.

Towers Main was mothballed for several years – how long exactly was it unoccupied? Was the idea always that it would be repurposed at some stage?
We initially started work on redeveloping Towers Main in 2014 and we had stripped out the building. We then realised that refurbishing the building was not the right solution, because although it would meet our space requirements it did nothing to improve the surrounding area and offered nothing to the community where we work. We decided that we needed to take the bold decision to sell the building as the city would benefit far more from a mixed-use residential scheme than another Absa office building. This was not an easy decision as the building is at the heart of our campus and we knew that for the scheme to work, we would have to work closely with whoever was successful in buying it and to trust them with a building that has our name on it and is closely associated with our brand.

How many Absa staff currently work in the city… and among how many different buildings?
We currently have around 9 000 colleagues who work in the CBD in the buildings that surround Absa Towers Main. Our head office is Towers West, and then we have Towers North, Towers East and Hoskens House, which is home to the teams that are working on the separation from Barclays. The large building that has few windows – Towers South – used to house one of our data centres. This has just been decommissioned and the building will be marketed for sale in the near future.

How will the redeveloped Towers Main building be integrated into Absa’s CBD workflow? Has a decision been taken on what part of the business will be moved in there once it is finished? 
We haven’t decided who’ll go into this space yet, but it will most probably be some of the supporting business areas. It will be designed to our normal corporate workplace standards and I’m sure that there will be no shortage of business units volunteering to move into the space.

How many floors of the rejuvenated Towers Main building will Absa occupy?
Absa will lease the lower nine floors of the building. We’ll also move our art gallery to the ground floor. We’re very excited about this as we have a fantastic art collection and host some amazing exhibitions. We’ve wanted to make these more accessible to the public, so this is a perfect opportunity.

Will Absa have any involvement with the rest of Towers Main?
We will continue to be involved as we are members of the Precinct Association alongside Divercity and we’ll also be a tenant. I’m sure that a number of our colleagues will rent apartments when they become available and we’ve already had a number of enquiries that we’ve passed on. The planned child-care centre has also been of huge interest to our working parents so I’m sure that Absa will be a main client. Finally, we’ll continue to have our name on top of the building as we are replacing the big TV screens that have lit up the CBD for the past five years with a new sign with our new logo on – so we’ll continue to proudly display our presence in the inner city.

The redevelopment was out on tender for some time. Can you share some of the insights that led to the decision to select Atterbury and Divercity as partners for this project?
The redevelopment was out for a long time but that is because we have a very strict governance process that we have to go through – we are after all a bank and this was a big decision for us that also had to be noted by our board. We were very impressed by the track record and level of expertise that Divercity and each of the different partners were bringing to the table. The look and feel of the building was key and Divercity had a vision that they were able to bring to life for us that will hopefully bring renewed energy to this part of town.

What excites you personally most about the redevelopment project and what it means for Absa?
Personally, I am incredibly proud of this deal. Absa could not have delivered such an exciting scheme without this association and I genuinely think that it will kickstart the rejuvenation of this part of the city. To have a crane over the CBD skyline has been a rare sight in recent times and to have been instrumental in putting it there is a great feeling. Absa wants to stay in the inner city, but in order to provide a safe, modern working environment for our colleagues we have to partner with the local community and local businesses. I hope that this will be a strong partnership for many years to come and in the future people will say that the rejuvenation of the Johannesburg inner city started with the Towers Main project and that Absa and Divercity had the courage, tenacity and vision to be the catalyst for change.