Posts in category: Featured

Tuynhuys is a futuristic new apartment block in Cape Town’s old legal district – replacing a faux Cape Dutch utility building whose false provenance scared off other would-be developers.

Set in a stoic row of Victorians, this exuberant high-rise proves that modern innovation is possible, and desirable, in even the most sensitive locations. Whilst the playful new tower respects its neighbours, it is no shrinking violet and its svelte muscular curves aim to be at least as attractive as its surroundings.

Read the full article here | Architect and Builder | September 2020

Willbridge Property Company have been appointed as Sales and Marketing Consultants by the Tambo Springs Development Company (TSDC).   The role will encompass Marketing, Stakeholder Management, Communications and Sales Strategies for the incredibly visionary project, Tambo Springs Intermodal Inland Port.

Tambo Springs Logistics Gateway is a 600ha industrial development located in the southern periphery of Johannesburg/Ekurhuleni and within the Johannesburg/Durban/Coega/Cape Town road freight and rail corridor. This world-class development will bring together all aspects of the warehousing, distribution and operation efficiencies. All of this being spearheaded by the development of the Tambo Springs Intermodal Terminal. 

From the ports to rail, road or air, to the warehouses and finally to the customers, Tambo Springs will be equipped to meet all manufacturing and distribution needs, Tambo Springs will nearly double current freight logistics capacity in and out of Gauteng by incorporating a range of elements which will differentiate it as a world-class competitive location.

Willbridge, have the experience and track record to orchestrate the launch and creation of this mega property development.  Tambo Springs will change the way in which logistics and intermodal transport works in South Africa and with its neighbouring countries.

Their first task will be to engage with industry stakeholders and prime end users in the shipping, freight and logistics world.   Managing this database of potential users will lead to the right mix of companies to be part of the new Intermodal Port.   Included in the scope or work, is for Willbridge to ensure that Tambo Springs is developed as a “smart precinct”.  It will offer road, rail, air and sea distribution opportunities with a private rail siding, customs clearance and special SEZ tax relief zones.

Within Cape Town’s city and suburbs there are a handful of buildings that are renowned for their unique blend of prime location and sophisticated design, those which make a remarkable statement and create genuine buzz. These are some of the finest investment opportunities in the city, and individuals with the foresight and experience – architects, developers and investors – usually snap them up before they’ve even had a chance to be marketed.

The challenge is that great properties in unique locations are harder to find. Cape Town sees unique pockets, as with Mayfair in London or Soho in New York, which are almost impossible to access by virtue of the fact that they’re already developed and maximised by those in the know.

One such pocket has just announced a rare new development, Tuynhuys, designed by Robert Silke and Partners and developed by Willbridge Property Company. Within one square kilometre of Tuynhuys, there exists the highest order of civic buildings of any major city, including The Company Gardens, St George’s Cathedral, The Cape Town High Court, Office of the Presidency, The National Library, National Gallery, National and Social History Museums, Planetarium and Parliament.

Tuynhuys will also lie just a few streets away from the anchors of the city’s energetic hub – Long, Loop and Bree Streets – connected to the bustling, eclectic mix of restaurants, bars, nightclubs and hotels, alongside the five-star restaurants – 95 on Keerom and Carne by Giorgio Nava – within the same street as Tuynhuys.

There are a number of beautiful parts of our city, but according to Silke, there is no more superb than this precinct. “I wanted to create something that was responsive and respectful to the current environment and was at least as beautiful as the properties which surrounded it. This can only be achieved through a magic relationship between a progressive and sensitive developer Willbridge Property Company, meticulous project managers and quantity surveyors BKTM, and the architect – a merge of commercial imperative and creative aspiration.”

Developing partners Brent Wiltshire and Viv Delbridge from Willbridge Property Company are excited by the immediate response. Explains Wiltshire, “Solid property investment is largely rooted in location, location, location. Cape Town has boomed from the suburbs and seaboard and crept slowly inbound over the course of the last decade to the point that the city is now a central focus of the current property spike, fortunately intersecting with the generational trend to living closer to others, connecting to a vibrant energy and community, and releasing the need for unnecessary material burdens that are costly in both time and money. It’s at this meeting point investors find a well-timed and well-placed opportunity, given that the building is part of the Urban Development Zone (UDZ) incentive. The interest has been overwhelming. This is most definitely a property to watch from a design and investment point of view.”

Tuynhuys will comprise eight levels of residential apartments – 4 penthouses, 11 two-bedroom apartments, 9 one-bedroom apartments and 21 studio flats, one basement level parking and two surface level parkings. Units were sold between R1,4 million for the studio apartments and R4,9 million for the penthouses.

The Willbridge team over more than a decade have been part of the advisory team with the then Mutual and Federal group of companies – now Old Mutual Insure.

Over the years property transactions took place that added value to their company… being better locations, branding and cost improvements for the company.  We did the deals in all the major cities being Cape town, Durban, Pretoria and Windhoek.

Their Head Office, however, based in the JHB CBD was always the challenge, being 24 000sqm’s of tower block, in an area increasingly being hit by crime and the lack of internal parking was making it even more unsafe for the staff to commute to the office safely.  OMI owned the building and desperately wanted to move, but who would buy a building with no parking in the JHB CBD?

That is where Willbridge and their networks and consulting came in – hunting down the optimal property solution. Firstly the JV was formed with neighbouring FNB who also had the need to create parking for their owned next-door building.  We got to work in creating a parkade of 550 parking bays to bring each building back to marketability.  Securing the first step in the puzzle, the building got the interest of the Bayete Capital Fund having one of the government departments in tow which enabled them to pay the full price for the building and thereby house this government department in a very suitable building.

The second step was another happy story in that the KPMG campus in Parktown owned by Old Mutual was a perfect solution and fit for Old Mutual Insure requirement – ticking all the boxes of area, size, status and branding,  and also relieving KPMG of a long and onerous lease at a time when they needed to reduce their contractual space commitments hastily.

Old Mutual happy to get a new 7-year lease from their “cousin” company, making the valuation of their asset increase and have more stability – everyone was happy. A wonderful story for many entities but a complex set of property negotiations to get there.