SAPOA Awards 2010
All were winners and there were no losers, yet some received special recognition at SAPOA’s (South African Property Owners Association) Innovative Excellence in Property Development Awards 2010, sponsored by Nedbank Corporate Property Finance, acknowledging excellence in property development.
This year’s event held in Sun City surpassed last year’s forty-six development submissions to achieve a new record of fifty-nine submissions. The awarded categories are varied as much as the developments bestowed with an award.
Neil Gopal, SAPOA CEO says, “The awards highlight quality, excellence in design and innovation—all paramount to the property development industry. The awards also demonstrate the determination of developers to keep abreast of the latest trends and to cater for clients’ building requirements.”
New Categories
SAPOA has hosted the event for a number of years, which through the years, has expanded to include a number of new categories to reflect the current state of the industry. The mainstay categories include office, retail, residential, refurbishment, social, international and ‘other’ developments. Recentlycategories such as ‘green building award’ have been incorporated to reflect the recent significance of this trend.
However, this year of the World Cup, has included yet another category—best 2010 stadium. Soccer City Stadium in Nasrec was bestowed with this award for the best designed and developed South African stadia constructed for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This category is a once off recognition specifically for the soccer event.
Winners
Scooping the coveted overall winner was The Department of Foreign Affairs’ new offices and conference centre in Tshwane. The ‘Office’ category had a split decision and awarded two developments; the O.R. Tambo Building and The Boulevard Park, owned and developed by Faircape Property Developers; designed by dhk Architects, Peertin Architects and Rennie Schurrr Andendorff.
Morningside Shopping Centre in Sandton walked away with top honours in the ‘Retail’ category. This retail centre completed in (2009) is the brainchild of Flanagan & Gerard Property Investment & Development and Grapnel Property Group. MDS Architecture was responsible for the design of this awarded development.
Century City’s (Cape Town) renowned Rabie Property Group was the winner in the ‘Residential’ category for its Waterstone development, which state-of-the-art design was crafted by Maas & Coetzee.
In the ‘Industrial’ category, Consolidated Facility for ABB South Africa in Longmeadow (Johannesburg) was awarded top honours. Owned and developed by Improvon Properties, this development also received a special Green Building Award for its environmental conscientious design. Donning a new, modern make-over, 9 Fredman Drive took home the award in the ‘Refurbishment’ category. This Eris Property Group development was designed by Boogertman & Partners.
Healthcare Facility—Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital was the leading example in the ‘Social’ category. Owned by the Provincial Government of the Western Cape and developed by Red Cross Children’s Hospital Trust, the hospital was designed by KMH Architects. Another dhk Architects inspired development is 15 on Orange which, owned by A Million Up Investments 105 and developed by New City Group, accepted the award in the ‘Other’ category.
Going overseas with the ‘International’ category, Old Town Commercial Island and Residences (Dubai) was the outstanding winner in this category. Owned by Emaar Properties and developed by Mirage Mile, this development also received the overall ‘Special Mention’. Amongst all mixed-use developments that sprung up this year, none were the definitive winner in the ‘Mixed-use’ category. However, merits were awarded to Melrose Arch Piazza (Melrose Arch Investment Holdings / Amdec Property Development) and MontClare Place (Growthpoint Properties).
