End of an era for Pretoria’s Telkom hub

Pretoria - One of the Pretoria city centre’s key landmarks, the iconic Telkom precinct, is set to make way for residential accommodation, retail space or even another government department.

The first seven commercial buildings within the precinct will become vacant next month and could be converted into retail space or residential accommodation spanning the entire two blocks.

Telkom has already started relocating its large staff complement of 6 000 workers to Centurion.

Norman Raad, chief executive of Broll Auctions and Sales, said the buildings were also ideally suited for a government precinct.

Broll is managing the sell-off of the buildings on behalf of the owners, Telkom Retirement Fund.

The remainder of the buildings in the precinct will become available by 2019 – with the exception of one, the details of which will be made known next week – when the current lease between Telkom and the owners lapses.

The precinct is made up of 10 buildings, all of which are let to Telkom until January 2019.

Raad said the buildings would be disposed of as one property.

Telkom spokeswoman Jacqui O’Sullivan said the telecommunications service provider already had a substantial campus on Oak Avenue in Centurion.

Moving the staff to Centurion would consolidate the Telkom workforce and allow for much greater efficiency, she said.

The campus was where the Telkom national operations centre was already located, she said.

Apart from the main network operations centre and mobile division of Telkom – already located in Centurion – the campus is also home of some head office functions. The complete relocation therefore made perfect sense, O’Sullivan said.

Telkom has been based at the precinct since it was formed in 1991, having been part of the then posts and telecommunications department prior to that.

The south tower has been standing tall as a landmark in the city centre since the early 1970s, although O’Sullivan was uncertain when it was built. The north tower was built in the early 1990s.

The closing date for offers for the disposal of the precinct was last week. “In the month-long process we attracted offers from a number of listed funds and private investors,” said Raad.

He could not disclose the proposals received at this stage, but the exercise is expected to rake in millions of rand.

“After a concerted marketing and property information process, we could not have asked for a better response. I cannot recall a sales process for a transaction of this scale being so well-participated in with so many interested parties submitting offers,” said Raad.

This unprecedented opportunity, with potential for redevelopment, he said, would bring much needed upgrades and refurbishment to the area. “Many other properties will no doubt follow suit with positive spin-offs for the CBD property market as surrounding buildings are likely to enjoy a concomitant increase in value.”

Raad said in relative terms, this investment opportunity was still cheap. Despite a number of local funds looking outside South African borders, he said, investors remained attracted to the value offering of CBD investments.

“The manner in which values and the demand for CBD real estate has increased over the years in tough economic environments illustrates their attractiveness.

“None of this would have been possible without the residential conversion partners who have demonstrated vision and innovation, converting underperforming office buildings into desirable residential accommodation.

“These attracted new investment and breathed new life into central city locations. Investors in turn have benefited from rental income streams as new tenants – residents and retailers – have taken occupation. Exciting times lie ahead in the property development sector,” Raad said.

kennedy.mudzuli@inl.co.za

Pretoria News