Atterbury has finally found a permanent new Western Cape home in Stellenbosch’s historic Dorp Street. Atterbury’s Development Manager for the Western Cape, Gerrit van den Berg, took us on a virtual tour…
How are things going with the move? When will you be up and running?
We opened the Stellenbosch office on 6 January in a temporary, Regus office in Eikestad Mall. We subsequently moved into our permanent office at the beginning of this month, so it’s still a bit chaotic, but we should be fully operational by the middle of March.
Why a Western Cape office and why Stellenbosch in particular? How do you think this new office will be different from what you’re used to?
We are very fortunate to be very busy in the Western Cape in recent months, and there are various projects in Stellenbosch itself, all of which should come on line in the next 12 months. As for the location, 101 Dorp Street is a sought-after location there’s a lot of energy and activity in the centre of Stellenbosch. However, there’s a big difference between having three or four people in the office and having 80+. We also spend a lot more time outside of the office due to the projects in Cape Town and surrounding areas, whereas in Pretoria we had most of our meetings in the office.
Which projects are the Western Cape office handling, and which ones present the biggest challenge?
We do the Citadel offices in Claremont and Richmond Business Park in Milnerton; and in Stellenbosch we’re handling a hospital; SawMill, which is a retail scheme and the Trumali offices. We also oversee the BAT head office in the V&A Waterfront; not as developer but just a watching brief as we are a co-investor. We are also working on a few other possibilities as well, including possible JVs with local partners, so watch this space… The biggest challenge would be Richmond Business Park, merely due to the magnitude. It’s not just the development of one building…
Tell us more about the team down there?
Aside from me and Danelle van der Merwe who assists me, it’s only Deon Volschenk, the Assistant Development Manager, and Wouter de Vos, the CEO of Atterbury Property Fund, who spends about 30 percent of his time at this office. Deon lives right here in Stellenbosch and the rest of us drive in from nearby Paarl every day. But quite a few people travel to our office from Gauteng on a regular basis. Solet Viviers, Morne Whitehead and Zahn Hulme are all down here frequently. I’m the only one who moved down from Gauteng.
How does the Cape office represent the culture of the Bloukrans head office?
I’ve been with Atterbury for 10 years and the Atterbury culture is of utmost importance to me. We’ll be attempting to recreate the same positive and extremely satisfying, work-hard-play-hard working culture in the Western Cape. I’ve always valued the fact the Atterbury staff lunch together every day and we’ll continue the tradition, as well as the monthly Friday Braai, although it’s obviously very different with a much smaller team. And we may have the odd glass of wine!
Are you planning a roof wetting?
Definitely! This will most probably be in April.
What would you welcome as a roof-wetting present?
I’d say a cleaning lady, something green (like a small pot plant) and coffee beans for my colleagues… they are big coffee drinkers! We don’t really have space for anything else!
