Bridge City Shopping Centre, owned by the Futuregrowth Community Property Fund (“Comprop”), has been awarded the 2024 South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA) Award for Innovative Excellence for the best Refurbishment.
The SAPOA Awards celebrate excellence in the realm of real estate, recognising groundbreaking achievements in architecture, development, and design across South Africa. Globally recognised, the awards shine a spotlight on innovation, sustainability, and community impact, and honour the visionaries and projects that are setting new standards in the industry.
The entries are judged on a range of criteria including Overall Impact, Design Concept, Social Transformation, Functionality and Environmental Sustainability.
The iconic 40 000m2 Bridge City Shopping Centre, located in KwaMashu, KwaZulu-Natal, was reconstructed, following devastation in the July 2021 riots, to create a dominant superior regional centre and to further enhance and integrate the transport nodes with the centre. The Bridge City Shopping Centre project was managed by Capital Land Asset Management (“Capital Land”) and the professional team included MDS Architects, Betts Townsend Taylor, MLC Group, Steffanuti Stocks and ARUP.
The contemporary aesthetics of Bridge City Shopping Centre are modern, light and inviting. The aesthetic concept was inspired by the centre’s location and use as a transport hub in KwaMashu, where retail intersects with transport in the forms of a train station and a new taxi rank. Railway sleeper and track details are prominent in the ceiling and floor tile design throughout the shopping centre. The tenant mix was actively enhanced to increase footfall to the centre and to create local employment opportunities, and the most technically advanced plant and equipment was installed to reduce the carbon footprint. A key emphasis was placed on the use of local service providers to support local communities through employment. An Unjani Clinic, established adjacent to the new taxi rank, provides accessible, quality, affordable healthcare and a range of CSI projects take place on an ongoing basis to uplift the community through educational support and sports programmes.
Smital Rambhai, the Fund Manager of Comprop said, “What turned into tragedy in July 2021 where the centre was completely destroyed internally, today has become a beacon and symbol of hope for residents of KwaMashu, Inanda and Ntuzuma with over 1 500 jobs being restored within 18 months. The re-opening of the centre, was quite an emotional day with singing and celebration in and around the centre, giving us a reminder of how important Bridge City Shopping Centre is in terms of delivering essential goods and services at affordable prices to the community.”
Comprop is a flagship fund in Futuregrowth Asset Management’s suite of developmental investments and has been existence for more than 25 years. All Comprop’s shopping centres are located in prime locations within townships and rural areas around the country. The Comprop portfolio comprises 25 shopping centres, with a total gross lettable area of more than 438 000m2, valued in excess of R8.2 billion.
Capital Land Asset Management is the appointed property and asset manager of Comprop. Capital Land is a leading investment property boutique involved in the asset and property management of institutional and private commercial property portfolios in South Africa.
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Author: anne lovell from Dmix on behalf of Futuregrowth Comprop.
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