Photo Courtesy of waterfront.co.

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Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa

Sean P. Murphy | Univ. of San Diego

Introduction
Many travelers are drawn to one location by a single attraction or landmark. Shoppers are marginally more demanding regarding variety hence the dominance of lifestyle, power centers and outlet malls both domestically and abroad. So what happens when a single location possesses (V&AW Website, 2013): 22 National Landmarks 1 of 7 Natural Wonders of the World 80+ International Restaurants 10 International Hotels 450+ Retail Stores A Helipad 200+ Boat Moorings and 500+ Residential units Well, you have the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront (V&AW) in Cape Town, South Africa. Covered by a temperate, year round Mediterranean climate, V&A Waterfront attracts over 23 million visitors annually (Devenish, 2013). Despite these huge achievements in the past 20 years, the waterfront came from more humble beginnings.

History
Despite not being a natural harbor, Table Bay was a refreshment station established by The Dutch East India Trading Company in 1652 (Van Zyl, 2005). The British colonized South Africa in 1795 but Table Bay would not begin its transition into the modern day V&AW until 1858. In June 1858, vicious winter storms ravaged over 30 vessels located in Table Bay. Wintering ships in Cape Town was so hazardous in fact, Lloyds of London refused to insure ships who chose to do so. Two years later in 1860, the first stones of a breakwater were laid by HRH Prince Alfred (Van Zyl, 2005). The port had an entire lifecycle through 1970 when the waterfront had fallen into a serious state of neglect and disrepair.

Initiation and Planning

A series of committees were established in 1984 and 1985 to ascertain the greater public use for the dilapidated harbor area. The findings of Arie Burggraats committee recommended using the waterfront as a mixed-use area focusing on retail, tourism and residential development with the continuing operation of a working harbor (Van Zyl, 2005). Three years later in June 1988, the relevant cabinet of the South African government finally approved Mr. Burggraats recommendations in full (Van Zyl, 2005). After almost two decades of planning and consultations, the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront was ready to become a reality. The one roadblock was no entity was willing to provide financing to the dreamers at the onset of the project. According to Pieter Van Zyl (2005), had it not been for the stateowned South African Transportation Services (Transnet) providing funding, the initial R205 million ($20.5 million) would have prevented the project from ever becoming a reality.

Integration
The level of integration at V&AW is nothing short of remarkable. As mentioned previously, the waterfront is a fully-functioning harbor where 60% of the local fishing industry currently operates out of (V&AW Website, 2013). Furthermore, there is a private marina with over 200 moorings available. If your normal means of transportation involves wheels as opposed to rudders, youre not out of luck. Two major highways connect almost directly to V&AW while commuters have access to over 7,583 parking spots spread across 7 different garages (V&AW Website, 2013). V&AW has a bus hub which connects visitors to the Civic Center (Cape Towns Central Business District) with buses running every 20 minutes. Environmental integration is important as well and V&AW has succeeded here as well. The development has realized a savings of R22 million ($2.2 million) over the last three years by installing energy efficient systems. Additionally, VA&W management is making strides towards being an environmentally responsible stakeholder by ensuring chemicals and cleaning products are ISO 14001 compliant and using zero Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) paints (Devinish, 2013).

Financials
The initial six phases of development (excluding two marina residential phases) occurred between December 1990 and March 2007 at a total price tag of R3 billion ($300 million). A majority of this was contributed by Transnet while private investment contributed R246 million ($24.6 million) to commercial projects and R282 million ($28.2 million) towards residential projects (Van Zyl, 2005). There was some shifting of equity when London & Regional Properties combined with Istithmar to purchase the development in late 2006 for R7 billion (Donnelly, 2011). Ownership changed hands once more in 2011 when GrowthPoint, South Africas largest property company, purchased a 50% stake for R4.9 billion ($490 million) while the state-owned Public Investment Corporation (PIC) contributed the same amount for the other 50% stake of the waterfront (Cranston, 2011). Six months later, GrowthPoint had already recognized a 26.1% increase in revenues from the acquisition which then accounted for 7.5% of the companys total portfolio value (Planting, 2012). Considering some claimed the purchase to be overpriced, this considerable gain has quelled the voices of many skeptical Capetonians.

Conclusions
Statistics touting the success of V&AW could be spouted for hours in support of the projects success; the less than 1% retail vacancy rate; the 3.19% office vacancy rate; the 23 million plus annual visitors. These are statistics which would make any would-be governmental/private partnership eager to recreate the successes of this Cape Town mixed-use waterfront. Having stood in New Yorks South Street Seaport, Bostons Faneuil Hall, Buenos Aires Puerto Madero and Cape Towns Victoria & Alfred Waterfront I can confidently claim the success of the latter is near impossible to replicate. The combination of natural wonders, historic architecture, breadth of industry and festive vibe are characteristics money can seldom buy. They are in large part, representative of South Africans unique history and culture. A marvelous feat when you consider the historical context in South Africa when the development began in the 1990s. South Africa was emerging from 60+ year reign of Apartheid which had resulted in complete isolation from the developed world and one of the most violent governmental transitions of the 20th century.

References
Cranston, S. South Africas Public Investment Corporation Begins to look Outward. The Financial Times. July 11th, 2011. Devenish, C. Case Study 3, W&A Waterfront, Cape Town. Existing Building Case Studies. World Green Building Council. February 2013. Donnelly, L. Zuma Pals Score in V&A Waterfront Deal. Mail & Guardian. February 18th, 2011. Planting, S. V&A Waterfront not the Albatross some Expected. Moneyweb. March 28th, 2012. Van Zyl, P. The Story of the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront Development. March, 2005. V&A Waterfront Website. Retrieved from www.waterfront.co.za on September 10th , 2013