• The first of six skyscrapers at Cape Town’s new R16 billion Harbour Arch development will be completed in May next year.
• The first tower will have 560 residential apartments with one to three bedrooms.
• Its eighth floor will host retail space and restaurants with indoor and outdoor seating.
• Its ground floor is earmarked for exclusive motor dealerships and coffee shops.
• For more stories, go to www.BusinessInsider.co.za

The construction of the R16 billion Harbour Arc mixed-use development in Cape Town is nearing the completion of its first of six towers planned and reached its highest point last month.

The newest high rise joining Cape Town’s skyscrapers is a 23-floor tower and is part of a large-scale mixed-use project which will have six towers in total upon completion.

The development, across 200,000m² of space, commenced in 2020 and is scheduled to be completed in 10 years.

Despite delays brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the first Tower 1 at Harbour Arch is on track for completion in May next year, Nicholas Stopforth, managing director of Amdec Property Developments, said.

Last month, the first tower topped reached the 22^nd floor after 3-million-man hours spent on the project.

A total of 560 residential apartments, including 82 rental units, 158 studio apartments, 203 one-bedroom apartments, 58 two-bedroom apartments, and 59 three-bedroom apartments, are planned for Harbour Arch Tower 1.

It will also feature double-volume glass-fronted retail space on the ground level, which will be reserved for exclusive motor dealerships and coffee shops.

On the eighth floor will be additional retail space that will host restaurants with indoor and outdoor seating.

The basement is more than 1,180 parking bays big and will span across three basements. Its open-air sundeck and swimming pool on the 18^th floor will offer 360 mountain and harbour views.

Aerial view. (Image: Supplied)

Street view of Harbour Arch. (Image: Supplied)

Artist impression of Harbour Arch’s residential courtyard. (Image: Supplied)

Artist impression of Harbour Arch’s skatepark. (Image: Supplied)

City view from Harbour Arch. (Image: Supplied)

Aerial view. (Image: Supplied)

Street view of Harbour Arch. (Image: Supplied)

 

50,000m² of concrete, 4,500 tons of steel reinforcement, and 13,301 glass panes have been used.

Its main contractor, WBHO has had to contend with a number of structural-engineering problems, “not least of which the deep ground-rock drilling and excavation required for the precinct’s 3- level super-basement, 11 meters below ground,” Dale Blanchard, contracts director at WBHO said.

Blanchard said the team had to work within restricted space and access and remove 65,000 cubic metres of earth and 5,000 cubic metres of rock during the excavation process.

“The wind also played havoc with our construction programme, particularly the higher up we went,” he said. “In one of the windiest years in Cape Town’s history, we’re thrilled that the team were still able to top out a structure of this enormity on time,” said Blanchard.

In April last year, the City of Cape Town announced that it had approved the building plans for the Harbour Arc during the previous year. At the time, the city said the Harbour Arch would inject R14 billion into the local economy, citing that it would also create an additional income stream in the form of rates and taxes that would be directed towards service delivery.

It said the city would also benefit from upgrades to infrastructure to the value of R90 million and the creation of 5,000 permanent jobs from the development’s hospitality and retail uses that would flow from it.