Property investors will “move elsewhere” if the CBD cannot maintain its status as the most successful city centre in South Africa.
This warning was issued by Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID) chairperson Rob Kane at the non-profit company’s recent AGM, where it was announced that it had received its 19th clean audit in as many years.
Rob said that while property valuations in the CBD had climbed from just over R6 billion in 2006 to close to R43 billion in 2018 – representing year-on-year growth of 18 percent – investors would take their money to other growth nodes in South Africa or overseas if “we are not able to run the CBD well”.
Rob said the year under review, namely 2018-2019, had been “incredibly difficult” and the CCID had found it “an increasing challenge to keep delivering on its mandate” to keep the city centre safe and clean. “Without that deep focus of getting it right on the ground, we will struggle to be an attractive investment destination”.
He appealed to the CCID’s primary partners and its main stakeholders, its ratepayers, to “collaborate more with us” to build on the success of the CBD.
“Now is a good time for each of us to reassess where we want this city to be in two, three, even 10 years’ time, and then for each of us to take responsibility for our role in that vision.
“Without shared responsibility, we will not retain our existing investment, and we certainly won’t attract new investment,” he noted.
Rob, who acknowledged he was heavily invested in the CBD, said it was important to be vigilant when it came to revenue generated by the CBD’s rates base. “We all know and accept that much of the rates revenue generated in the CBD is spent in more needy areas, which is a sound principle, however we all need to guard the CBD’s rates base very, very carefully.”
The year under review had been a tough one for the CCID as conditions on the ground had changed substantially “and we have found it an increasing challenge to keep delivering on our ‘Business as Usual’ mandate”.
At a simple level the CCID provided co-called “top-up” services to its primary partners, the City of Cape Town and the SA Police Service. “However, complexity creeps in as, increasingly, we are no longer the ‘top-up’ service but find ourselves in the first line of defence as well as the dominant provider.”
He said this was something the CCID was neither mandated nor equipped to do. He said: “This reality is that this puts a lot of pressure on the CCID … with stakeholders expecting more and more from the company while other resources in the Central City are quietly eroded.”
He said the CCID prided itself on adding value to the CBD and its four departments, namely Safety & Security, Urban Management, Social Development and Communications, had performed incredibly well “under difficult circumstances” in the year under review.
He praised CCID CEO Tasso Evangelinos and his team for their dedication and the thoughtfulness they put into every project. “This is a very well-run business,” Rob noted, “and as a result, in spite of the tight economy and the unusual business environment we find ourselves in, our CBD continues to experience a vote of confidence from both business and residents”.
It was crucial to build on this success in the year ahead, Rob concluded.