Leading chemical group — BASF relocates to Century City

From left to right: Bill Grantham of Grantham Commercial Properties, Bert Hamilton and Vicus Herdst of BASF and Colin Anderson, Director of Rabie Property Group

BASF, the world’s leading chemical group, is relocating its Cape Town offices to Century City.

The group has taken a five year lease for just over 1000 square metres in Building Two at Central Park in the heart of Century City.

The lease, which has a capital value of around R18million, was negotiated by Bill Grantham of Grantham Commercial Properties.

Building Two is linked into Century City Connect, Century City’s revolutionary fibre optic open access network.

Believed to be the first such network of its kind in South Africa, Century City Connect is providing the country’s fastest “last mile” open access network over which a select number of Internet Service Providers are offering those living and working in the precinct the fastest voice, broadband and multi-media services.

The open access Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTx) network is “carrier neutral” which means clients are able to choose which of the accredited  Internet Service Provider’s (ISP’s) packages best suits them in terms of voice, broadband and multi-media services.

Grantham said BASF had had offices in the Milnerton area for the past 12 or so years and the move had been necessary as their current offices were being redeveloped.

“There was never any debate over where they would move to. For them there was only one possible location and that was Century City. It was just a matter of which building in Century City,” he said. 

Colin Anderson, a director of Rabie Property Group which developed and owns the two storey building set over basement parking, said a further 380 square metres, with generous parking, remains to be let in Building Two.

The building is the seventh to be constructed at Central Park, which when completed will comprise a total of 18 000 square metres of intimately planned, village scale office buildings in three unique but interrelated office parks set around a lush open field where regular sports and community events are held. 

Central Park is in easy walking distance of all Century City’s amenities including the public transport interchange and the Canal Walk Shopping Centre. It is also home to a Clubhouse, a community square, an Educare Centre and the offices of the Century City Property Owners’ Association, has been designed as the focal recreational hub for the greater Century City precinct. 

A bridge providing the main pedestrian access point for Intaka Island, Century City’s award-winning nature conservation wetlands, leads off the community square.