| Colossal property development planned for Hosea Kutako Airport area |
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| Written by Staff Reporters | ||||||
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Developers of the multi-billion dollar SUNGATE property expect to kick-start the first phase of the ed project by mid 2009, with construction envisaged to last for up to five years.
The first phase is a 350-hectare residential and commercial village around Hosea Kutako Airport, some 40 kilometres east of Windhoek.
Accolade Properties Namibia, a division of the Accolade Properties
Group of South Africa, says the project “is bigger than any of the new
uranium mine investments and its value runs into billions of Namibian
dollars”. A further 300 hectares, directly across the Trans-Kalahari Highway, is expected to be purchased under Phase 2. Project directors Willy Klein and Gerd Wieneke told the Economist that most of the paperwork has been completed. All potential investors and interested parties would be approached soon, possibly starting this month, they say. Approved designs include plans for a road network, bulk water storage facilities, power, telecommunications, wastewater treatment and solid waste disposal facilities. SUNGATE is shaped along the lines of the Isando Village, a commercial property situated adjacent to the OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa. The identified prospective partners of the project include the government, local authorities (in this case the Khomas Region), private and commercial property managers and individuals. Details of interested parties are already being registered and the developers say they have been overwhelmed by the interest shown ever since the first presentation was made at the Namibia International Investment Conference in November last year. The project has a potential to link airfreight, rail and road transportation from all corners of Namibia to the SADC region. It also has the ability to develop into a highly specialized sub-town with all facilities ranging from modern houses, banks, warehouses, and offices, shopping complex, hotels to restaurants. Direct beneficiaries to the project, Wieneke says, would be businesses involved in import and export, tourism, cross-border transport and air freighters whose facilities and accommodation for employees and staff are currently situated in
“Whilst at the first glance it may appear that only specific businesses stand to benefit, it soon becomes obvious that the benefits are widespread - from individuals who have to travel daily to and from the airport to tourists arriving or departing from the airport and the transport operators and other businesses. Presently, the airport does not have any hotel facilities within its surroundings,” adds Klein. |
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