Pioneer of mixed-use precincts

Before “mixed-use” became a real estate buzzword, before the 15-minute city entered policy debates, the idea of living, working, shopping, conferencing and socialising in one place felt almost reckless in South Africa. This was a country that planned in silos. Suburbs with homes over here, offices there, retail somewhere else entirely.

ThenCentury Cityarrived, with an excellent location just outside the Cape Town CBD – and broke the rulebook. Conceived in the mid-1990s, when the appetite for large-scale, privately-led urban precincts was close to zero, Century City was a maverick move. Capital-intensive, infrastructure-heavy, and dependent on patience rather than quick returns, it was widely seen as too ambitious for the local market.

What sets Century City apart is not only that it pioneered the mixed-use precinct locally, but that it survived long enough to refine the model, absorb its early missteps and prove that integrated development can work in South Africa. The original ambition was bold: a city within a city, stitched together by canals, offices, retail, leisure, residential stock and eventually, hospitality. But mixed-use does not succeed on intent alone.

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It requires timing, sequencing and scale. Offices need retail. Retail needs footfall.

Footfall needs residents. Residents need safety, services and convenience. Century City took years to reach that tipping point.

The opening ofCanal Walkshopping centre between 1998 and 2000 anchored the precinct both economically and psychologically. With 408 stores, 17 cinemas and 8 000 parking bays, it shifted Century City from an interesting concept into a functional destination. Corporate tenants, conference facilities, hotels and residential blocks all soon followed.

For a long time, Century City was somewhere you went to. You worked there, shopped there, attended a conference there and then you left. That has fundamentally changed.

The real evolution of Century City has been its shift from commercial node to lived-in suburb. Today, daily life unfolds on foot. Morning runs along the canals at one of the country’s largest park runs.

School drop-offs at Curro. Coffee meetings that do not require a car. That is the difference between mixed-use on paper and mixed-use in practice.

Since taking ownership of the remaining undeveloped land in 2004, Rabie Property Group has reshaped the precinct through densification, increased residential stock, improved public spaces and more deliberate interaction among uses. The strategy was never about speed; rather, it was about intentional development and playing the long game. Nowhere is this clearer than on the former Ratanga Junction site.

Once Africa’s first fully fledged theme park, Ratanga Junction opened in 1998 with 37 rides, four rollercoasters and two theatres. Many will remember the iconic cobra-shaped roller coaster. But as a seasonal attraction, the park struggled to sustain traction (and profitability). It closed in May 2018.

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