The City of Cape Town has approved the establishment of a green technology manufacturing cluster on vacant city-owned land in the Atlantis industrial area, which it hopes will provide jobs in an area where half of the adult population is unemployed.
The sale or lease of two designated sites (or portions thereof) by way of a specialised land disposal management system was also approved. This system includes a rapid application and adjudication process available to qualifying applicants.
The city recently sold 7.8 hectares of this site to Red Planet Horizon Trading, owned by Gestamp Wind Steel South Africa, to manufacture wind towers. This purchase is part of the city’s quick access-to-land programme for industries operating in the green economy.
GRI is a Spanish company with a 100 percent shareholding in GRI Wind Steel South Africa.
GRI currently produces 1 200 wind towers a year in four factories around the world.
The total building area of GRI Wind Steel SA’s tower factory is 14 683m2 in size.
Construction has already started on the site and is expected to be completed in October.
“We are calling on our partners in the green technology sector to invest in Atlantis so that we can make progress possible together,” said deputy mayor Ian Neilson.
“The city foresees that this 68ha property will be transformed into a green technology manufacturing cluster. A development facilitation team has been established to fast-track investments and to assist potential investors. In Atlantis, one out of two people are unemployed. We have to step up our efforts to enable job creation through increased direct investment.”
It was expected that GRI Wind Steel South Africa would generate more than 200 jobs – of whom approximately 150 to 180 employees would be from Atlantis and the surrounding area, the city said.
“The interest from local and foreign investors in purchasing land in this green technology hub is growing.”