Spear Reit, the Western Cape specialist landlord is enhancing its industrial park, Blackheath, with a R74m upgrade.
“Transactions within the Cape Town industrial property sector are certainly demonstrating that the market is bouncing back,” the fund’s head of leasing, James Bylos said.
The company said Bravo Brands, the South African home products group had entered a 10-year lease with Spear at Blackheath Park. Spear would redevelop approximately 50% of the 38 000m2 industrial premises.
These conversions would enable Bravo Brands to bolster the production and distribution capacity of its lounge brands for both local and international markets.
Bravo Brands’ products include Alpine, Gommagomma, Grafton Everest, King Koil, La-Z-Boy, Sealy, Slumberland, Edblo and Nouwens. It chose Cape Town as the growth node for its export business, citing the Western Cape as the location with the best growth prospects in South Africa.
According to Group CEO Dave Govender, the agreement is “aligned to its core purpose of strengthening its local economic contribution to enable its brands, stakeholders and communities to prosper through local procurement and production, and by spearheading industry transformation through skills development and transfer”.
Speaking at Blackheath Park, Quintin Rossi, CEO of Spear said that the property market would be required to adapt to the demands of de-globalisation by providing “internationally matching” facilities.
Having outgrown its current premises in Parow Industria which is also owned by Spear, Bravo Brands sought an internal solution, given the strong alignment between the two groups.
“Demonstrating the advantages of a diversified property portfolio and the agility to adapt, Spear responded with a R74m redevelopment plan of the Blackheath property,” Rossi said.
Bravo Brands’ initial take-up at Blackheath Park will be 16 000m2 with an intended expansion over the next five to seven years. Spear’s project team will execute the redevelopment, to provide a turnkey facility for Bravo Brands. This includes a solar installation that is earmarked for 2023 in line with Spear’s and Bravo Brands’ sustainability commitment.