Brad Armitage is a man on a mission: to invest in top-notch businesses that attract people to Cape Town’s CBD and grow the downtown area into a 24-hour economy.
The entrepreneur behind & Union, Vida e Caffe and The House of Machines has most recently turned one of the CBD’s more challenging buildings, in Shortmarket Street, into a new upmarket nighttime venue named Outrage of Modesty, which has also introduced South Africans to the concept of molecular cocktails.
Armitage says just a few short years ago nearby Bree Street was a dead zone, and he wants to mirror its current success in other parts of the CBD.
“If you take a walk along Bree Street now, it has arguably taken over from Kloof Street as the gastronomic heart of Cape Town. Just about every block houses a concept restaurant, coffee shop, bakery or bar, and it is alive and filled with people almost around the clock.
“The idea now is to move that business investment down into the heart of the CBD; not only with restaurants but with other complimentary, upmarket businesses that will make downtown the only place in Cape Town that people will want to shop, eat and hang out.”
Armitage says the amount of new property development and the growth in the residential component of the CBD in recent years means that it is now a viable business investment prospect for a host of industries.
“Between Capetonians making the CBD their own again and the massive tourist market that is attracted to the Central City, having confidence in the business investment potential of this area is a no-brainer.”
Tasso Evangelinos, chief operating officer of the Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID), says entrepreneurs such as Armitage are exactly what the CBD needs to continue its growth trajectory.
“In the 2005-06 financial year, the nominal value of all property in Cape Town’s CBD was just over R6 billion. In the 2014-15 financial year, that figure had rocketed to nearly R24bn and by the time all the developments that are currently in planning or underway are complete, the figure will be around R30bn.
“We have never seen greater business confidence in Cape Town’s CBD than right now, and people like Brad are helping to create that.”
Evangelinos says the premises in Shortmarket Street that now houses Outrage of Modesty used to be a club that was a regular target of law enforcement for a range of offences from public intoxication to drug dealing.
“As new businesses move into a precinct, such as was the case with Bree Street, it becomes more difficult for problematic venues to continue to operate and ultimately they will close.
“The CCID is working extremely hard both on the ground in terms of crime and grime, but also on the investment front to make the CBD an even more attractive business destination and entrepreneur partners like Brad Armitage are exactly what we need to make this happen,” Evangelinos concludes.
For more information on Outrage of Modesty visit www.anoutrage.com.