Century City, Cape Town

Century City is a 250 ha suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. Century City is structured as a mixed-use development including entertainment, residential, retail and office components.[2] Development began under Monex Development in 1997 and continues under the new owners, Rabie Property Group. Investment thus far exceeds R10 billion. It is located 10 km to the north-east of central Cape Town along the N1 motorway and is traversed by numerous waterways, wetlands and canals.

Century City
Suburb of Cape Town
Main Canal within Century City, Table Mountain in the background
Century City
Century City
Coordinates: 33°53′30″S 18°30′30″E
CountrySouth Africa
ProvinceWestern Cape
MunicipalityCity of Cape Town
Main PlaceMilnerton
Area
 • Total2.62 km2 (1.01 sq mi)
Population
 (2011)[1]
 • Total4,239
 • Density1,600/km2 (4,200/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
 • Black African15.9%
 • Coloured10.1%
 • Indian/Asian19.9%
 • White49.6%
 • Other4.5%
First languages (2011)
 • English69.6%
 • Afrikaans15.7%
 • Xhosa2.9%
 • Zulu1.2%
 • Other10.6%
Time zoneUTC+2 (SAST)
Postal code (street)
7441
PO box
7446
Area code021

Background
Canal Walk's exterior from the main canal

Century City's original developments were the Ratanga Junction theme park and Canal Walk shopping centre.

Canal Walk was the largest shopping mall in Africa and the Southern Hemisphere in lettable area when it was opened in December 2000 at 125,000 m². More recently expanded to 141,000 m², the mall contains over 400 stores, 20 movie theatres, many restaurants and bars and an entertainment section. Two twin office towers - the Canal Walk Towers - rest atop of the mall.

Ratanga Junction was a theme park that had many monetary issues, resulting in downsizing, off-season closures and the addition of year-round conferences and entertainment facilities. It permanently closed in May 2018 and is to be redeveloped to residential use.[3]

The Colosseum is a mixed-use R300 million development, including ground-floor cafes, offices and a 70-room four-star hotel. Construction was completed in January 2007.

Adjacent to the mall are two 11-storey towers called the Crystal Towers that opened at the end of 2009. It is the largest development in the precinct after Canal Walk itself. The R750 million development consists of Century City's first 5-star hotel with 180 rooms, as well as 91 luxury apartments and an office block.

Century Gate and The Estuaries are two additional commercial developments, collectively costing R500 million.

ABSA occupies 5-star Green Star twin development Bridge Park in Bridgeways Precinct.[4][5]

List of Residential Buildings
Name Description
KnightsBridge A R275 million residential development adjacent to Canal Walk, with 15 floors of apartments in two towers, with penthouses located in a 12-storey high bridge across the canal adjoining the two towers. Construction was completed in late 2006.
Villa Italia A multi-storey, multi-building residential development.
The Oasis A multi-storey, multi-building residential development
The Island Club Completed in 2005, it is a residential development located around a series of islands and canals opposite Canal Walk, and includes a small 23-room four-star hotel.
Century View A low-density residential development.
Bougain Villas A low-density residential development.
The Manhattan A 15-floor apartment tower that was completed at the end of 2008, consisting of a sectional-title hotel with 30 suites and residential apartments.

Conservation

Built on a wetland area, Century City needed to comply with conservation measures. Intaka Island is a 16-hectare wetland area within the development. The wetland naturally cleans the water in the canals and provides a green lung in an otherwise high-density development.[6][7]

Criticism

There were concerns that Century City would cause decentralisation from the Cape Town central business district, but thanks to the city improvement district (CID) and urban renewal efforts spearheaded by the Cape Town Partnership (CTP), this has not happened. This development thus remains another commercial node in the Cape Town metropolitan area while the city centre remains vibrant. More recently, the development has been criticized for causing traffic problems. Measures have been taken with an aim to improve congestion during peak hours.[8]

References
  1. "Sub Place Century City". Census 2011.
  2. "Century City". Archived from the original on 2019-04-08. Retrieved 2019-11-03.
  3. "Here's a sneak peek of Cape Town's new Ratanga Junction development". The South African. 2018-10-19. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
  4. "PressReader.com - Connecting People Through News". www.pressreader.com. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  5. Booysen, Joseph (14 February 2017). "ABSA finds a new 5-star green home". Cape Argus.
  6. "About Intaka Island". Retrieved 21 May 2017.
  7. "Intaka Island". Century City. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
  8. "Measures taken to combat traffic congestion". 9 December 2013. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
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