Shruthi Nair (Retail Curator, Propertuity)
[Video] Creative businesses core to a Joburg property innovation
“Propertuity is a development company that started about 6 years ago, and it is the brainchild of Jonathan Liebmann,” explains Shruthi Nair, Retail Curator at Propertuity. “We bought one building on the East side of the Joburg CBD when the city of Joburg was probably at its worst…the idea was to develop a creative space for artists to move into.”
According to Nair, Liebmann saw the potential to ‘grow into something bigger’, which resulted in the company rapidly buying abandoned buildings in a specific area with the vision of developing them into a mixed use, densely populated neighbourhood. This vision came to life in the form of the now popular Maboneng Precinct.
“A typical building would have ground floor parking and retail, so there would be a coffee shop or maybe a boutique (independent, unfranchised) on the ground floor,” explains Nair. “From the first floor to the fourth would be apartments that are sectional title that you’d be able to buy as an owner and rent out, or just rent in that building.”
There are also buildings with the same profile on the ground floor (parking and retail) and then the first floor upwards is office space or commercial space.
“It’s really an urban landscape for everything,” says Nair, pointing to the school, park, restaurants, about 16 fashion retailers/vendors, a market, a museum, and even a Backpackers.
Off-Plan Model
“We pretty much sell and rent all of our spaces off-plan before a building is built,” she explains. “So when the building is cleared we put together a marketing pack with renders...”
According to Nair, the off-plan model has been the most successful model.
Teaming up with Spaza
“Spaza is an experiential team that builds these curated, bespoke events for big corporates,” says Nair. “It’s a consistent collaboration, so if they’ve got an event that’s open to the public then we will publicise it in our newsletter and on our website…it’s a constant exchange of information to keep each other aware of what the plug-in resources are in the area.”
Springboard for Success
Nair highlights one of the many inspirational stories that have come out of the Maboneng Precinct thus far.
She points to Beki, who grew up in Troyville - an area next door to Maboneng – and who ‘knows the city like the back of his hand’. Beki was working at the Bioscope Chalkboard Café in Maboneng as a waiter.
“The building that those [two] businesses are housed in is a residential building, so he naturally started engaging with the residential profile [customers],” says Nair. “One of the guys that owned an apartment in the building met with Beki consistently, and they started talking about this concept of walking tours in the city, which opens up into this new business that they launch called Mainstreetwalks.”
She adds: “It’s a massive success, and Beki starts understanding that there’s a deficit in the CBD for the first Backpackers. So the second phase of the walking tours, which now happen from the Backpackers, was to conceptualise Curiocity. We built the business for Beki and he co-owns it. It’s the first Backpackers in the Joburg CBD, and at the age of 23, he is the co-owner of two very successful, tourism-based businesses in our area – and he’s thriving!”