The development of Rosslyn Hub is a crucial step towards the creation of the Tshwane Auto City (TAC) a vision shared by government and the automotive industry to transform the area into the leading automotive investment destination in Africa.
This auto city is a R50-billion project that will be funded by private sector investment and could be a blueprint of how to develop Africa’s future smart cities in a sustainable way. According to Brendan Falkson, Director of Rosslyn Hub, it is envisioned that Rosslyn, which is already home to four automotive plants BMW, Nissan, Iveco and Tata along with an array of automotive suppliers, will emulate well-established automotive cities like those in Spain, China, Germany and Japan.
This will create a second ”CBD” in the north-west of Tshwane on the doorstep of GaRankuwa and Soshanguve, anchored by a labour-intensive automotive manufacturing core that will enable workers to walk to work and redress the poor land decisions of the past.
So how do you build a new city by unlocking private sector investment?
Through collaboration and a common shared vision. In this case the shared vision is building Africa’s first auto city, whilst the collaboration is achieved by involving all stakeholders right from the beginning.
In 2012, the Automotive Investment Development Centre, or AIDC a wholly-owned government subsidiary, was tasked with project managing the Tshwane Auto City. Through this process, the AIDC brought the major role players in the auto industry, private sector developers and landowners together with the key city, provincial and parastatal players, in order to draw up a Spatial Development Framework and then a master plan, to show how this vision could be achieved. The TAC project is spearheaded by the AIDC in collaboration with the City of Tshwane and the Tshwane Economic Development Agency.
Through this process, developers of Rosslyn Hub worked with the AIDC in order to align their development with the vision of the Tshwane Auto City. “Although the redesign and town-planning changes seemed painful at the time, we could see the long-term benefits for ourselves and the region, of the Tshwane Auto City’s impact,” says Falkson. “The support and assistance we have received from both the City of Tshwane and the Gauteng government has enabled us to redesign our layout to address six of the key components required for the auto city. The most important of these is to provide a logistics node, vehicle distribution centre and main access road for the new Transnet-approved logistics hub.”
The master plan was able to identify the key access road that is required to be built by government to unlock the project. This road will enable the logistics hub required for the auto industry to be linked to the N4 highway and Transnet’s freight line a key component in achieving export efficiencies. At the same time the northern portion of the road will link the plus-minus 500 000 people in the greater GaRankuwa and Soshanguve with work opportunities and transport nodes within Rosslyn and the auto city. For the first time, entry level workers will be able to live within walking distance of work. The money and time saved on transport can be directly invested in assets like homes, whilst increasing the time available for family time and quality of life.
By bringing more people into Rosslyn, this road will also trigger a R3-billion, private sector investment in Rosslyn Hub, which in turn will act as a catalyst for the R50-billion Tshwane Auto City.
Rosslyn Hub will include:
- 1 200 houses and 250 rental apartments
- A crèche, primary and high school
- A university with student housing
- Two shopping centres, a value centre and filling station
- A logistics park and vehicle distribution centre, with access to a world-class rail logistics hub
- A truck-staging area and truck stop
- Motor showrooms and a motor retail area
- A hospital and clinic
- A hotel and conference centre
- An outdoor automotive pavilion
All this within a secure, pedestrian-friendly environment.
The Rosslyn Hub team and the Automotive Industry Development Centre (AIDC) presented their vision at the African Smart Cities Summit on 16 May at a presentation and discussion titled “Public private collaboration in action”. This was followed by the official launch of the development at 17:00 and a networking reception, where the project was showcased to an audience of media members and representatives from the Gauteng Provincial Government and City of Tshwane.
The official on-site launch took place in Rosslyn on Friday, 18 May 2018.
Opportunities for Joint Venture partnerships
- BBBEE equity investors or partners
- Equity investment
- Retail investors and tenants
- Light industrial and logistics companies
- Solar or energy companies
- Rental housing investors and developers
Contact Tshwane Economic Development Agency (TEDA)
To discuss or enquire about opportunities in Rosslyn Hub, please contact TEDA via the contact form here.
