Expectation high as Civic Centre Towers readies for the market
Developments in the Nigerian commercial office space market has, in a very fascinating way, given the waterfront of Ozumba Madiwe Street in Lagos a special status as home to Nigeria’s equivalent of Corporate City in Dubai where buildings of unimaginable heights house its corporate community.
Ozumba, as it is commonly called, is home to a good number of high-rise buildings, but the most outstanding of these are the commercial office buildings including RMB Properties/Oando’s ‘The Wings’—a twin tower that will rise 14 floors with promise for 27,000 lettable office space. Others are Waves and Civic Centre Towers.
A brand new AAA commercial building in the heart of Victoria Island, the Civic Centre Towers is described by its promoters as “one-of-a-kind commercial development” strategically located at the intersection of Ozumba Mbadiwe Road and Adetokunbo Ademola Street in Victoria Island.
On the construction side, the towers also described as a new revelation in the commercial property market in Nigeria, is over 85 percent completed and when BusinessDay visited the construction site recently, it seemed that the building could be ready for the market before mid-2015.
The office space market in the country has, for too long, hungered for quality and international standard buildings especially for the multi-national corporations and high end market investors. Expectation is therefore, high that the coming of Civic Centre Towers and others like it would be a sure step towards satisfying that hunger and enhancing investor-confidence in the economy.
The towers has a panoramic waterfront view of the five cowries creek, and has iconic structures like the Civic Centre, Oriental Hotels, Mobil House, a Helipad, a Jetty and other upcoming developments as close neighbours.
It is hoped that this iconic gold standard building will offer dynamic businesses, multi-national industries and financial institutions a high quality business environment in a vibrant urban location.
Its main features include a raised floor for electrical cable management on all lettable office floors and a double glazed curtain wall systems to minimize solar heat gains while the facilities include plug and play internet facility, borehole and water treatment plants, two 500kva generating set; 6,060 square meters of lettable office areas, car parks for over 180 cars, coffee room, drivers lounge etc.
Fine and Country, a global real estate marketing and advisory firm with special focus on luxury and upscale developments, has been selected to provide advisory services for the project and is currently taking interests for its leasing.
According to the company, Civic Centre Towers is a response to global trends, explaining that with growth in industrialization, commerce and technology, there is need for commercial hubs where businesses can thrive.
It notes that leading commercial cities such as New York, Tokyo, and London have continued to thrive as they attract and retain the best businesses and talents leading to accelerated economic growth.
“These cities serve as the corporate headquarter sites for multinational corporations, international financial institutions, law firms, conglomerates, and stock exchanges that influence the world economy and also contribute significant financial capacity to the city’s, region’s or even nation’s Gross domestic product (GDP), the company said.
In African cities such as Lagos, Johannesburg, Cairo and Nairobi, according to the company, there is growth and an emerging market in commercial activities as businesses are on the rise, noting that with improvement in infrastructural facilities, quality of life and the entrepreneurial mindset of the citizens more commercial buildings are being developed leading to thriving commercial cities.
CHUKA UROKO