The greater Ballito area is doing justice to its status as one of the fastest growing economic zones in the country.
This outlook emerged from the Business@Breakfast meeting, a collaboration between the iLembe Chamber of Commerce, The Robert Group and The North Coast Courier, held at Sheffield’s Manor House last Friday. The purpose of the get-together was to highlight iLembe’s current and future economic development outlook.
Speakers included Pat Lambie from the Collins Group, Kevin Swart from North Point Ballito, Ballito Farmers Market co-founder Kyle Pretorius and Carol Church from Love North Coast.
Details were shared on several existing and upcoming developments and investments, which among others include a high school, a new retail shopping centre and a plastic recycling company.
Highlights included:
• Real estate: Lambie highlighted coastal estates such as Zululami Luxury Coastal Estate and Seaton Estate, accounting for a staggering R1.420-billion in investments to date. Combined, these estates offer more than 2 500 homes and sectional title units.
• Road enhancements: Lambie also detailed several past and present infrastructure upgrades to roads undertaken by the Collins Group.
One of these include upcoming upgrades to the P330/474 (Brettenwood and All Souls Anglican Church) intersection where two slip lanes are to be built and traffic lights installed at a cost of R6.9-million to alleviate traffic pressure. This project should be completed by the middle of next year.
Further roadworks include the construction of an interchange on the N2 just north of Tiffany’s Shopping Centre, scheduled for completion by the end of 2024.
• Retail and education: Feasibility studies relating to a new retail shopping centre indicate that it could potentially be the size of a regional shopping mall to accommodate the additional households.
The Collins Group has also appointed a task team to finalise plans to build a new high school with space for around 1 000 pupils. This is well underway and could potentially open as soon as 2025.
• Industrial and commercial growth: Swart introduced the 380 000sqm North Point Ballito business park located between the N2 and R102. Although primarily a business park, it includes a residential component, Bliss Ballito, with 114 units underway and an anticipated completion date of May next year.
More than R100-million had been spent on upgrades and developer contributions to date.
Most notably, Alpla, an Austrian family-owned plastics recycling and manufacturing company, is also setting up a plant at North Point Ballito.
The first phase of this development, with investment of R1-billion, is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2024.
The plant will create an estimated 150-200 direct permanent new jobs and 10 000-15 000 indirect jobs in the province.
Alpla has more than 23 000 employees across the globe, including 190 production facilities in 46 countries, boasting a turnover of €5.1-billion in 2022.
