Construction World August 2021

PROPERTY

It’s no secret that Somerset West has fast become one of the Western Cape’s leading semigration destinations. The little town has a lot going for it which makes it incredibly desirable for people who are looking to move away from the city in search of a better quality of life. The pandemic, lockdown and remote working have only amplified the semigration trend, but now as many companies contemplate bringing employees back to the office, the big debate is about how. HEARTWOOD PROPERTIES SPEARHEADS NEW HYBRID OFFICE DEVELOPMENT

4 AX listed Heartwood Properties, specialise in commercial office and industrial warehousing developments across South Africa. In responding to the crisis, they conducted market research among their tenants. The research showed that many of them were not planning to make a full return to the office, even when COVID-19 became a thing of the past. But because of the human interaction the office provided they wanted to have a solution that would meet both demands. Heartwood Properties are therefore launching a new hybrid office development, a first of its kind to be built in South Africa, called Sunvlei. The new office block will be situated in the Paardevlei precinct of Somerset West, just outside Cape Town, close to the Strand Beach and the Paardevlei Nature Reserve. This area has already seen several exclusive residential estates and top schools being built over the last few years. The area also offers plenty of outdoor living space, proximity to world class wine estates and is just a 30-minute drive into the city of Cape Town. “Professionals realise they can have a work life balance. With the airport, sea, and mountains virtually on their doorstep, Somerset West is without a doubt a very attractive location to set up the office of the future. One that is high-tech, safe, spacious, as comfortable as any home office, just better.” Says Andrew Utterson, Director at Heartwood Properties. Sunvlei is a 2 000 m 2 , R57m office development offering tenants access to innovative future-focused features such as electric vehicle charging bays, 100 solar panels, Tesla UPS battery system, ultra-high-speed Wi-Fi, a backup power generator, and backup water tanks. The modern architecture, designed by locally based architect Bruce Wilson who is also responsible for the Sanctuary and

“It’s a little different from the co-working office model offered by the likes of WeWork and Regus in the sense that only employees of Heartwood tenants will have access to the co-working spaces.” AndrewUtterson, Director at Heartwood Properties. then also have the benefit of the use of a business lounge and meeting rooms," explained Utterson. All of Heartwood's properties are developed in response to tenants' requests via their tenant shareholder model. And so, despite having faced major challenges in 2020, Heartwood has managed to grow its property portfolio since first listing on the stock exchange in March 2018 from R121m to R248m in the past three years to February 2021. They plan to grow their portfolio to R1bn in the next five years. As zoom towns continue to grow in popularity, Heartwood plans to roll out their hybrid model in other popular de-centralised nodes, with Sunvlei set for completion near the end of 2022. Other features include prime signage, ideal positioning opposite a Private Hospital and the Strand’s 18-hole golf course, easy access to the N2, twenty five minutes to the airport, thirty six basement parking bays, six motorcycle parking bays, sixty nine secure parking bays, and that it is wheelchair friendly. 

Waterstone shopping malls in Somerset West, and exclusive designer interiors, headed up by Source IBA, will be modelled against some of the world’s best-looking airport lounges whose clean, contemporary designs rival some of the chicest of hotel lobbies. Source IBA have extensive experience designing interiors for retail, office, hospitality, and leisure developments not only in South Africa but across the African continent. “Our studio is excited to be a part of developing this hybrid environment. Our design goal is to extend the hybrid thinking to all aspects to deliver a brand-new experience. We are blurring the lines with many aspects in terms of inside versus outside; serviced versus self-help; private versus public; workspace versus hospitality and analog versus digital. These are all to be completed to the highest level,” says Mardre Meyer, Creative Director of Source IBA. The hybrid design will meet the demands of tenants, who are not looking to always have their entire staff compliment all under one roof. It will also house a 190 m 2 designer business lounge, with luxury finishes including meeting rooms, a coffee bar and zoom pods. This is available to the tenants’ remote workers to come to when they need to pay the occasional visit to the office. “It’s a little different from the co-working office model offered by the likes of WeWork and Regus in the sense that only employees of Heartwood tenants will have access to the co- working spaces. All tenants and their employees will be able to access the shared business lounge. In other words, clients get the best of both worlds with a combination of their own private space where they can create their own identity and manage their own facilities, but

14 CONSTRUCTION WORLD AUGUST 2021