The Nelson Mandela Bay Development Agency has outlined its plans for 2006 and chief among them is convincing local and national spheres of government to free up land in order to aid development in Port Elizabeth.

The agency is set to present its Strategic Spatial Implementation Framework (SSIF) to the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality early next year.

The framework, which was outlined this year, looked at researching the development with the aim of identifying market gaps to establish sustainable projects for private sector development.
It concentrated on development in the residential, retail, office, tourism, leisure and entertainment sectors.

Agency chief executive officer Pierre Voges said this research revealed that “a lot of prime land in the agency’s mandate area is in the hands of the municipality and national government”.

As examples Voges cited land in Humerail and part of the harbour.

An important goal for next year was to get the municipality and national government to free up or unlock this land so the MBDA could begin planned developments.

Once the municipality had viewed the SSIF, the agency would set in motion two other important steps aimed at jump-starting development, agency chairman Sipho Pityana said.

“There are three clear steps that need to happen next year.

“One is getting the SSIF to be cleared with the municipality. The second is to look at a major branding and marketing exercise of all the projects, with the aim of attracting investment. And the third is embarking on a major capital-raising drive to ensure there is funding for this project.”

Voges said it was impossible to place a total on the amount of capital that would be needed, saying that certain projects, such as the pulling down of the flyovers, would need base funding from government in order to attract investment from the private sector.

Although the SSIF would only be presented next year it had been developed “in close consultation with (municipal) councillors and senior officials as well as leading business people and other key stakeholders,” Pityana said.

He said the agency had a total of 14 projects it was working on. Among the key areas identified by the SSIF for medium-term development were:
• The International Convention Centre.
• The Statue of Freedom.
• The harbour waterfront development.

Projects marked for short-term development were:
• Upgrading Donkin Reserve.
• Redevelopment of Kings Beach as an events space.
• Beautification of the Donkin Reserve.
• Upgrade of Parliament Street between Rose and Lawrence streets.
• Upgrade of the area around the Pier 14 shopping centre.
Pityana said Port Elizabeth presented many opportunities for investment.

“There are whole ranges of market gaps we have identified against a huge demand from potential users. There is under-investment in retail and office accommodation as well tourism accommodation and conferencing infrastructure.”

Land had become imperative to successful development in the future, he said.

In line with this, he said, work on the proposed waterfront development had already started.

“We have consulted with the owners of the land and we need to ensure that what Transnet has planned for that land and what we are proposing for it are aligned.”

Voges said the southern side of the Port Elizabeth harbour had been earmarked for development and that all the stakeholders involved, including Transnet, had agreed to the necessary steps for this happen.

“The tank farm will have to be relocated. That process is on track. National government has decided to lease out land that is not part of its future core business thinking for development for other purposes.”

The manganese ore dumps and oil tanks fell under this description and steps were under way to move them to Coega, Voges said.

He said an official in the public enterprise department was currently looking at the financial and business rationale of moving the fields, with a report due next week.