Century City is a 250 ha suburb of

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. Century City is structured as a

mixed-use development Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...

including entertainment, residential, retail and office components. It is located 10 km to the north-east of central Cape Town along the N1 motorway and is traversed by numerous waterways, wetlands and canals.

Development

Development began under Monex Development in 1997 and continues under the new owners, Rabie Property Group. Century City's original developments were the

Ratanga Junction Ratanga Junction was an amusement park located in Century City, Cape Town in South Africa. The park opened in December 1998 as part of the development of the Century City area, adjacent to Cape Town's biggest shopping centre, Canal Walk. Its ...

theme park and Canal Walk shopping centre. When it was opened in December 2000, Canal Walk was the largest shopping mall in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and the Southern Hemisphere in lettable area at 125,000 m². The Ratanga Junction theme park closed in May 2018 after many years of financial problems. The site will be redeveloped for residential use.

Conservation

Built on a wetland area, Century City needed to comply with conservation measures. Intaka Island is a 16-hectare wetland area within the development. The wetland naturally cleans the water in the canals and provides a green lung in an otherwise high-density development.

Criticism

There were concerns that Century City would cause decentralisation from the

central business district, but thanks to the city improvement district (CID) and urban renewal efforts spearheaded by the Cape Town Partnership (CTP), this has not happened. This development thus remains another commercial node in the

metropolitan area while the city centre remains vibrant. More recently, the development has been criticized for causing traffic problems. Measures have been taken with an aim to improve congestion during peak hours.

References

{{Cape Town, communities Suburbs of Cape Town