Gateway Development Project Launched for Mitchell's Plain

WC Premier and City Mayor launch Mitchell's Plain Urban Renewal Project

A City of Cape Town Urban Renewal Program (URP) project was launched on July 25 2009 at 10am.

Watergate Estate, dubbed the Gateway to Mitchell’s Plain, is near the R300 and opposite the site of the soon-to-be completed Mitchell’s Plain General Hospital.

Western Cape Premier, Helen Zille and Cape Town mayor, Dan Plato, will both attend the hour-long event to officially endorse the R1.2 billion, five-year project.

Watergate Estate will not only house the homeless but will also afford working opportunities to the local community. This project will see the creation of about 500 jobs during the construction phase and about 250 permanent positions after completion.

The development site and launch venue is where AZ Berman Drive intersects with the R300 in Mitchell’s Plain and the site office will be open to the public for queries about the 4500 available properties.

The site is also within easy distance of shopping malls, the taxi rank and the upgraded Mandalay railway station.

With three years of solid planning and a team of highly skilled professionals, the development is geared at helping first-time home owners with a monthly income of R7500 to R15 000 to realise their dream of owning property.

A package making 100 percent bonds available to buyers has also been negotiated with a leading financial institution.

During the first phase there are 357 homes that will be constructed.

The second phase is scheduled for the building of 2400 homes, a shopping mall, soccer field and public facilities such as a multipurpose community hall, park, and undercover walk way from the development to the new and upgraded Mandalay station.

Both phases will offer high security, convenient, multipurpose, lock up and go apartments, each measuring between 48m² and 62m².

The URP is part of a national urban renewal strategy which focuses on uplifting areas of greatest deprivation, and includes investment in economic and social infrastructure, human resource development, and enterprise development.

In the Western Cape, Mitchell’s Plain and Khayelitsha have been identified as urban renewal focus areas.

Both fall under the jurisdiction of the City’s URP Department with Zille as its provincial political champion and Plato, as her local government counterpart.

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