Many of Port Elizabeth's historic buildings in Central and Richmond Hill lie vacant and crumbling.

But now the Mandela Bay Development Agency is hoping initiatives to revitalise the CBD will change this by increasing demand for the properties and encouraging property owners to renovate.

Agency chief executive Pierre Voges said: "Anyone who bought a building five to 10 years ago could not do much, because there was no demand for buildings in the area, in terms of retail, office, residential, leisure or entertainment."

Although he agreed that Irish property magnate Ken Denton, who owns many of the properties, "should have carried out more maintenance", he said: "We couldn't expect him five years ago to develop those buildings, because there was no demand for them."

Voges said revitalisation of the CBD, one of the municipality's 2020 Vision programmes, had not started by "pressing a button" and the recently implemented security and cleansing programmes were the first steps in reviving the area.

Urban development zone tax incentives - approved by the national treasury in June - to reward property owners who invested in the CBD and surrounding areas would also encourage investors, he said.

"Next year, we have plans to upgrade Govan Mbeki Avenue, from Russell Road to Market Square. This will create confidence in the private sector," said Voges.

"I believe Denton will start working on his buildings, now that the area is showing potential for commercial development."

Voges said that the agency was sharing information with property owners about the requirements of the city.

"People have bought property with confidence in the future, but they're not sure what to do with their buildings."
Johann Staats, Eastern Cape heritage resources authority council member, said the organisation had been working with the agency in an effort to "entice property owners to upgrade their buildings rather than forcing them to renovate" but this approach had not yet worked.

He said the council would be involved in a meeting early next week to discuss the possibility of issuing compulsory orders.

If approved, the council can apply an already existing legislation - the Heritage Act, which provides legal options to enforce repairs on buildings more than 60 years old - and most of the dilapidated buildings in Central and Richmond Hill are more than 60 years old.

John Preller, chief executive of the non-profit Hill Improvement District Business Forum, which has been fighting for the rejuvenation of the area, said: "We don't want to watch our buildings dilapidate further."

Referring to the security and cleansing programmes introduced in the CBD, Preller said: "We are now seeing physical manifestations of taking back control of the area." But the problem of illegally-occupied vacant buildings still needed to be addressed, he said. "Property owners have to take responsibility."

Demonstrating confidence in the metro's plan to revitalise the CBD, Absa Bank recently invested R4,5-million upgrading its Govan Mbeki Avenue branch, re-launched last week.

Earlier this year, three other major retail businesses opened new outlets in the centre - Mr Price, Spar and Nando's.