South Africa is set to commence construction of soon to be the tallest skyscraper in Cape Town once it receives approval from the Reserve Bank.
The building dubbed Zero-2-One Tower has been in the spotlight since as far back as 2016 when the plans for the skyscraper were first unveiled by developers FWJK. The Tower initially faced delays in approvals which included stipulations that new developments include ‘affordable housing’ – an incredibly difficult task in a city with some of the highest house and apartment prices in the country and funding hurdles.
FWJK CEO, David Williams-Jones has however announced that the development has secured funding through a foreign direct investment and therefore construction is set to commence in the next few months. He acknowledged that procuring funds locally proved a hill of a task.
“The procurement of project funding has faced challenges and has had to be secured through foreign direct investment. Raising the funds from the local South African convention banks proved impossible because of the current state of the economy and cautious bank appetite at the present time to lend on projects of this scale,” said David Williams.
“Once the South African Reserve Bank approves the foreign funding, we are going to start construction in about three to four months which will create 3,000 onsite and offsite jobs for the locals,” he added.
Zero 2 One Tower, at 44 storeys, will comprise 570 apartments and 7,000 sqm of retail shops on ground level and station concourse level built on the corners of Adderley and Strand street in Cape Town CBD. The project is estimated to cost US $67m.
