A young entrepreneur and property developer is credited with urban restoration of Johannesburg’s once crime-ridden east side central business district, CNN reports.
Jonathan Liebmann is busy rejuvenating the South African city’s industrial heart after years of urban decay. His Maboneng Precinct is transforming a crime hotspot to a hipster hangout.
Maboneng – which means “place of light” in Sotho – has become a mixed-zone neighborhood of shops, restaurants and residences that comes alive on weekends. It evokes London’s trendy East End and the shabby-chic streets of New York’s Williamsburg according to CNN. Johannesburg’s young middle class are flooding to the area.
“The area has really transformed from being a rundown industrial area into being a new living and workspace for people looking for something alternative,” Liebmann told CNN.
Liebmann and his team own 35 properties in the area and have developed 10 of those buildings since 2008.
“It’s paid off financially, but it will pay off more in the medium to long term,” he said.
The Maboneng Precinct’s first project, “Arts on Main” is a creative hub with a restaurant, rooftop bar, exhibition space and studio for some of South Africa’s most respected artists.
Prices for an apartment in Maboneng range from $28,500 to $305,000. Liebmann said that since he started buying up properties, prices have sky-rocketed.
“Initially buildings were being bought for 100 euros a square meter,” he said. “I think prices have tripled, but that still makes it very competitive when you compare it to the suburbs. There are still very good deals to be enjoyed.”
Despite seemingly low prices by Western standards, Maboneng remains an aspirational area for many of the city’s 3.8 million inhabitants, CNN reports.
South Africa may be the continent’s largest economy, but 23 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.
Liebmann said that Maboneng’s continued development will have a positive impact on Johannesburg, known as the “City of Gold,” as other similar projects spring up around the city.
“There’s always a knock-on effect,” he said. “It’s all coming together now in total regeneration.”
Kempston Group is another company investing in Johannesburg real estate. Originally a trucking company, today Kempston Group owns 100 commercial, industrial and farming properties around South Africa.
And the firm is now taking on a mammoth project to transform the notorious Ponte City skyscraper in the heart of Johannesburg.
When it was built in the 1970s, Ponte City was a desirable place to live. But having loomed over the city for nearly four decades, it became a symbol of the urban decay. The abandoned building fell victim to crime, drugs and prostitution toward the end of the 1990s.
When it was taken over in 2001 after years of neglect, five stories of discarded trash had to be removed as the building’s rejuvenation took place.
Kempston Group founder Tony Cotterell is overseeing the renovation. “We bought in large conveyer belts with earth-moving equipment and we started moving it out,” he said.
The group has invested tens of millions of dollars into the project and has completed renovating the residential floors. Cotterell says all 500 apartments currently in Ponte are occupied.
“What we’re creating is an environment where people can feel safe,” said Cotterell. “It’s a big change from where it was 15 years ago. I think the whole of Johannesburg is starting to change as well.”
