As the city is hit by high-level load-shedding, water cuts, infrastructural decay and, of course, the ubiquitous potholes, once-vibrant suburbs are feeling the pinch.
Frustrated residents are increasingly trying to take the initiative and fill the vacuum left by an absent local government. For high-street suburb Melville, weathering the peaks and troughs is trying. It’s easier sailing for a live-work-play precinct such as Rosebank, where corporate investors have come to the party.
While Melville is looking a bit worse for wear, Rosebank is buzzing. People spill out of cafés and restaurants onto the streets, new stores are opening their doors, buildings are popping up and a number of blue-chip companies have relocated to the precinct. At the same time, older apartment buildings have been converted to upscale flats to lure young professionals to the live-work-play precinct.
The private sector has come to the party, investing heavily in the node. Corporate stalwarts such as Anglo American, Standard Bank, Life Healthcare, Coke, PepsiCo, BP, Redefine, Sappi, Cricket South Africa and AngloGold Ashanti all have a presence in the area. And shared workspace outfits such as Mesh Club, Regus, WeWork, Perch and Workshop 17 have also taken up residency.
According to commercial property manager Renprop, 242,500m2 of space has been developed in Rosebank since 2010. On the residential side, micro-units of 20m2-60m2 are selling for R700,000-R1.8m.
Rosebank hasn’t always been a suburb on the rise. Justin Bass, MD of property group Grapnel, has been involved in the precinct since the early 1990s. He says Rosebank deteriorated in the late 1990s and early 2000s due to a lack of a shared vision and a languishing economy, and tenants moved out to suburbs such as Sandton. Then the Gautrain arrived and became a catalyst for change.
“What’s driving [Rosebank] now is that there’s been a huge amount of investment in new office developments, predominantly around Oxford Road and the corner of Glenhove and Oxford,” says Bass. These include mixed-use, residential and retail developments.
[The Rosebank Management District] is about to recondition all the roads and pavements from funds from the private sector. It’s iniquitous that we’re having to do it all, given the rates collection in the node every year
— Justin Bass
It hasn’t been plain sailing.
“The biggest constraint is a lack of government support,” says Bass, pointing to the metro council’s foot-dragging on issues such as drainage, sewerage and the roads.
It’s a scene not unlike those playing out elsewhere in the city. The Rosebank Management District (RMD), as a result, “is about to recondition all the roads and pavements from funds from the private sector. It’s iniquitous that we’re having to do it all, given the rates collection in the node every year,” he says.
“We understand that you have to redistribute to areas that have no infrastructure, but as developers we make contributions of significant sums, and that money should last; we’re working to get a collaboration with them [the city]. The money that is paid by the private sector for infrastructure upgrades will hopefully come back into Rosebank.”
On the retail side, department store We Are Egg is the new kid on the block. It aims to attract millennials with an offering that runs the gamut from sneakers to beauty goods, wellness to homeware. It’s the second such store in the stable, and is doing three times the turnover of its Cape Town counterpart.
“My feeling is that Rosebank is experiencing rejuvenation in terms of a shopping area,” says We Are Egg CEO Paul Simon. “I know it’s gone through peaks and troughs, but we believe it’s on the up, particularly with the pedestrianisation ... We believe it’s the next Sandton.”
The Blend Property Group has also invested in Rosebank over the past few years. Its most recent project is The Bank, a mixed-use development that includes the Voco hotel. Like Simon, Blend CEO Mark Corbishley compares the node to those in some European cities. “It’s a safe, pedestrian-friendly and amenity-rich part of the city, which is hard to find elsewhere in Joburg,” he says.
By way of example, Corbishley talks of launching initiatives such as First Fridays, when shops and art galleries keep their doors open late, and of opening up the area with food trucks.
“When we invest in the area, the investment comes back 10-fold in terms of tenant demand, hotel occupancy and restaurant revenues,” he says. “I think the other landlords see this, and we expect to see continued investment in the node.”
RMD board member Carollyn Mitchell believes people are looking for more cosmopolitan, linked urban spaces. That’s what her company, precinct developer Intaprop, has done with Oxford Parks: it’s about taking a holistic view of development, including the design, development, redevelopment and management of public spaces. The focus, she explains, is “on creating appropriately scaled, inviting, safe spaces for people where life can happen”.
She says: “Oxford Parks is 100% let, showing us that the designed urban precinct model is what people and the market are looking for. Vacancies in Rosebank are predominantly in the B-, C- and D-grade buildings, and those buildings are being refurbished or converted to residential apartments.”
Renprop, for its part, has developed three apartment buildings in the precinct. It’s an attractive residential proposition, says company MD Chris Renecle, given its proximity to a number of good former model C and private schools.
Renecle says Rosebank probably has the lowest office vacancy rate in Gauteng. To put that in context, the vacancy rate for P-grade (prime) office space is at 1.1%, against Sandton’s 9.7%, and A-grade Rosebank space is at 15.5%, compared with Sandton’s 25.1%.
The uptick in demand has paid off for landlords. According to Niel Harmse, vice-president of MSCI Research, Rosebank’s average gross asking rental for prime offices in the fourth quarter of last year was R232/m2 — beating comparable nodes such as Sandton, Waterfall and Illovo.
The Firs, once a dour retail centre, is another of Rosebank’s redeveloped, vibrant spaces. That’s largely thanks to Investec Property Fund, which spent time and money upgrading and repositioning the centre. It’s meant The Firs is fully let for the first time in five years, says Seer Property CEO Darryl Mayers, who used to be joint CEO of Investec Property Fund.
“Rosebank comes at a price,” he says. “It’s an expensive node to be in, yet people are still choosing it for the energy. It’s a complicated area. It’s not the standout retail, nor the standout office space as individual pockets go — I think you could find good value in other areas — but it’s the combination ... that makes it work”.
Still, while turnover at The Firs stalwarts such as the Grillhouse, Doppio Zero and Fishmonger is above pre-Covid levels, other businesses have taken a knock. In particular Mayers refers to those that relied on the tourist and airline market, many of which closed their doors when the Hyatt hotel was mothballed.
It’s not clear when the Hyatt will be reopened. The hotel group’s Srdjan Milekovic tells the FM the intention is to reopen the hotel under the Hyatt Regency brand and welcome guests back soon.
Rosebank is going through a rejuvenation in terms of a shopping area. I know it’s gone through peaks and troughs, but we believe it’s on the up
— Paul Simon
Beyond work and living options, Rosebank has become a food destination of note.
Marble, in Keyes Art Mile, is a city standout, while Oxford Parks has top-tier offerings in chef Luke Dale Roberts’s The Test Kitchen Carbon and The Shortmarket Club, as well as Ethos. The Firs is home to La Parada and pan-Asian fusion restaurant Chunky Chau, alongside its long-standing restaurant tenants. And The Bank boasts the hugely successful Proud Mary (the same owners recently opened South American-inspired Mamasamba in We Are Egg).
With its combination of residential and commercial space — and its location along the commute from both Sandton and Joburg’s business district — Rosebank “really is the perfect area for an upmarket offering”, says Marble’s David Higgs.
“It does not have the bustle of Sandton — it’s almost a leafy suburb. And the more restaurants that are opening, the better for all of us,” he says.
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