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Neighbourhood Watch

Get to the point

Arime levels are high on Durban’s Point Waterfront. Really high. Cops recently swooped on a hardened criminal operating in broad daylight in the very heart of the New! Improved! R6-billion peninsula under development at the entrance to Durban’s harbour.

The crime? A local resident was standing on the balcony of his high-rise apartment and fishing in the adjoining canal. Not allowed.

That hilarious non-event aside, crime is not an issue in KZN’s newest and most exciting property development.According to developers and estate agents alike, there is no crime at all in the Point.
Says Billy Dixon, boss of Property 031, ‘Security at the Point is among the best in South Africa: the whole area is under 24-hour CCTV surveillance and security guards are everywhere. There has been no serious crime at the Waterfront since its launch. I have no doubt that once it’s fully developed it will be like living in paradise.’
So bang goes another cherished misconception about this on/off, often controversial development that plans to turn what was once a dingy dockside wasteland into one of the hottest property nodes in all SA.

It’s all in the name, you see. Say ‘Point’ to Durban folk and the immediate image is of old Point Road, the city’s notorious red-light district, a grubby cesspit where ladies of the night gull the johns, sleazoid speakeasies like the infamous Smugglers Inn lure the punters with promise of pole, lap or dirty dancing, while on the mean-spirit streets, the pimps and pushers edge in and out of the shadows.

That’s the perception. The new reality is somewhat different because, at the furthest reaches of this notorious, 1km Road to Hell, they’ve done the unthinkable and are now turning this inner-city garbage can into an exclusive beachfront enclave for the rich and famous. Indeed, Smuggies and all the other dive bars are long gone, and even Point Road itself has been reborn, in an act of mindless official perversity, as Mahatma Gandhi Road.

Billy talks of paradise, but it’s not yet Paradise Found. Point developers paint a picture of a new Hanging Gardens of Babylon, but for now the Waterfront is an eerily deserted place, a suburb in waiting and in search of a tangible identity. Actually, let’s not euphemise here: the place is a bombsite. Berlin 1945. A movie back-lot for all those post-nuclear apocalypse epics set in a deserted, overgrown Manhattan. Vacant plots clotted with rampant coastal weeds, the blitzed remains of ugly old buildings littered with rubble, while in the background the soaring spires of gleaming new apartment blocks tower incongruously above Ground Zero. There are no restaurants yet, just a brave café or two; no malls or art shops; and the street-level façades of the new high-rises are lined with empty shop space plastered with ‘To Let’ signs. There are few cars, no strollers, no children playing in the parks and no one walking the dog beside the canals.
All that will come, but for now the Point is but a gleam in the developers’ eye.

But when that gleam becomes a reality, the Point will rise like a Phoenix and become one of the most desirable places to live in all Africa. When it’s completed, the area will be a classic case of waterside gentrification – like London’s St Catherine’s Dock or San Antonio’s famous River Walk. In place of the sad dereliction, there will be parks and fountains, canal-side pubs and cafés, boutiques, craft stalls and the steady buzz of vibrant street life. These are the sorts of places people love to visit: to shop, eat, drink, stroll, see and be seen. Offer them the chance to actually live there and you’ll have to beat them off with a sharp stick.
There have been serious hiccups along the way to this property Shangri-La: years of stop-start development, delays caused by environmental impact studies and objections from local watersport clubs, who now have to make way for the final stage of the Point’s Grand Plan – a small-craft harbour/marina that has just been given the green light after a Provincial environmental impact assessment.

Neels Brink is an experienced developer and planner, whose company, Laurusco Developments, holds the Point management contract with the Durban Point Development Company (DPDC), the holding company behind the entire Waterfront project. He notes: ‘The Point is unique because its waterfront components cannot be replicated elsewhere along the eastern seaboard.’

In the beginning, the Point had 57ha of land for development. About 20ha were sold and partly developed between 2003 and 2008, a move that created R2-billion in construction investments, while the DPDC also invested R200-million in roads, essential services and the Point’s signature canal system. The DPDC sorts out basic infrastructure, then sells the packaged land to developers. Of the remaining 37ha, some 27ha of bulk land have just been released for sale; the rest will be devoted to the small-craft harbour. Neels reckons the basic infrastructure should be shipshape by 2015, while the rest of the buildings will take another three years to complete. Who lives in the Point? Neels says it’s a mix of young professionals, families and retirees – only a couple of hundred at this stage, but the demographics will remain flexible as the character of the zone develops.

The next phase of building – including the marina – will run from next year until 2015. Capital spend on this has been projected at R1,6-billion, which will likely leverage another R4-billion in construction spend from third-party developers.

Greg Cryer is a director of Key Projects, a development consulting firm that has been involved with the Point virtually from the start. His company, together with developer Rick Wilson, is responsible for the R350-million, three-part Quays development project in the heart of the Waterfront. Greg says the launch of the Point’s Phase One was a big success, but then came a three-year hiatus because of environmental studies relating to the widening of the harbour mouth and the construction of the small-craft harbour. There were also official objections from local boat, ski and fishing clubs. Most of the watersporters have now agreed to be relocated to a spot near the North Pier, although the 300-odd members of the Durban Paddle-ski Club have dug in their heels and refuse to move. Now the DPDC has applied for an eviction order, which was still pending as we went to press. Greg says the ultimate goal is a mixed-use development with offices, retail, mall, apartments, restaurants and so on. He and other players note the Point can never become a congested mess like Umhlanga and its Ridge because the sea and the harbour clearly create immovable limits.

Michelle Veneruso manages the beachfront branch of the Soukop Property Group. She pulls no punches about the Point’s chequered past: ‘From the onset, there was much finger-pointing – corruption, shoddy workmanship (one development company was liquidated last year after structural defects appeared in the apartment block they were building). Then there were accusations of white front-men using black yes-men as BEE directors and politically motivated tenders. It seemed a cocktail for disaster.’

But, says Michelle, just as the city’s newly completed Moses Mabhida soccer stadium has now attained iconic status, so too will the Point Waterfront. She waxes eloquently about the Point’s potential: ‘Residential property sales soared pre-recession, but softened with the downturn. Now the market is in recovery, there’s a lot of hype around the Waterfront again, all orchestrated by the symphony of splendid 21st-century architecture, canals, walkways, views of the deep blue ocean and magic harbour lights. Buyers are once again motivated as they recognise the lifestyle potential here. It will be a self-supporting suburb, and malls and business hubs should be in place within the next two years.’She says ‘much progress is being made in the Point Road area, thanks to the Inner eThekwini Regeneration and Urban Management Programme. Buildings are being upgraded, and once the municipality has finished redeveloping the South Beach/Addington node (for the 2010 World Cup), they will continue a similar process in Mahatma Gandhi Road.’

Colin Sher is sales and marketing manager for the DPDC and regional director of Broll property group. He says nine residential blocks containing about 500 apartments have gone up at the Point since the launch. In addition, the new Dockpoint development features 27 Old Natal verandah homes that have been completely revamped. Each home has three bedrooms, a landscaped garden, private swimming pool and two underground parking bays. Colin says ground-floor properties along the canal-side are earmarked for retail. All the office accommodation – about 5 000m² – has been let to blue-chip tenants, while about 90% of the apartments have been sold, with occupation standing at 40%. Apart from the 3,5ha retail quarter, there will also be hotels and a large office component, as well as another 2 000, apartments in due course. Essentially, the Point’s ethic will be a ‘live-work-play’ lifestyle.

Downside? Because this is very much a work in progress, there are no shopping facilities, says Colin. Also, access along Point/Mahatma Gandhi Road is still perceived as dangerous, although the answer there would be to use the seaside Marine Parade route instead. There’s also limited access to schools in or near the precinct.

Cecily Deetliffs runs Tyson Properties’ uShaka branch. She’s so optimistic about the potential of the Point that she now lives there. ‘I think the Point is the best-kept secret in Durban. It is fantastic to live here. A view over the harbour anywhere else in the world would cost millions; think of Sydney or San Francisco. The only drawback is there are no supermarkets and such, but they’ll come with time.’ Cecily says prices have remained static over the past five years because of the recession and, because there are still off-plan developments on sale, second sales have proved difficult.

Billy agrees. ‘Some properties have been resold below cost as buyers/speculators have got into difficulty. But once the recession is over, I reckon buyers will start seeing at least a 10% return.’

Colin is more upbeat. He believes those who got in early could have achieved up to 50% growth, but those who came to the party late would have paid higher prices and would end up having to let their apartments because of low sales demand. ‘They would have had to chip in quite heavily and will have to see out the recession to reap the benefits.’