Active market interest in Africa's first globally benchmarked Science Park

Active market interest, with more than one party interested in all the available Phase 1 sites at The Innovation Hub, and a rapidly growing interest in the rental accommodation, underpins the significant progress being made in delivering on its goal of establishing a high-tech cluster in Gauteng.

August this year saw the roof-wetting event of the Hub's two core buildings, barely ten months since construction started in October 2003. According to Gauteng MEC for Finance and Economic Affairs Paul Mashatile, indications are that the infrastructure development for The Innovation Hub will meet its target dates. "The roof-wetting of the 12 500 m2 Innovation Centre and Enterprise Building is an important milestone and I look forward to seeing it move to completion by December this year," he said at the event.

Gauteng MEC Paul Mashatile, the keynote speaker at the event, making a point about the Hub's progress.	CEO Dr Neville Comins commending the teamwork that has gone into keeping the project well on track.	Concor MD Ian Friend, representing the Concor-Trencor JV … explaining some of the construction challenges.
A bird's eyeview of the construction on the new site - event dignitaries on the rooftop, ltr Dr Neville Comins, Ian Friend, Paul Mashatile and Dave Marais.	Event VIPs - contractors, clients and stakeholders - ensuring that the roof of the Enterprise Building had a thorough wetting!	University of Pretoria representatives ltr Prof Calie Pistorius, Johan Nel and Prof Robin Crewe with Blue IQ's Sandy Lowitt, with the hard hats that were donned before ascending to the rooftop!

Mashatile also congratulated Sappi Ltd, as The Innovation Hub's first anchor tenant, on the progress of their new Technology Centre and Paper Academy being constructed next to the Hub's two core buildings.

The Innovation Hub is one of eleven projects of the Gauteng Provincial Government's Blue IQ initiative to invest in economic infrastructure development in the Province. Mashatile indicated that The Innovation Hub's focus on clustering high-tech businesses to foster innovation and drive the development of new intellectual property would add significant value to Gauteng as the country's 'smart' Province and to South Africa as a competitive economy in the high-tech sector.

The Innovation Hub has also been recognised by the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Council as a strategic project to support its 'smart' city positioning.

CEO Dr Neville Comins lauded the teamwork between the contractors and all other stakeholders involved to enable "delivering high quality workmanship within the required deadlines for this complex project to remain on schedule".

Significant growth has also taken place in The Innovation Hub's pilot activities. Membership of its INNOV8 community, a unique high-tech business forum in Gauteng, has doubled to over 2 000. The success rate of companies in business incubation has been 79%, with a combined staff growth of 133% since inception.

The success of its CoachLab™ Leadership Development Programme has resulted in additional partners being sought to expand this collaborative model. "And the application of our BEE procurement policy in the infrastructure development has resulted in more than 300 new construction jobs with 42% of the budget for contracted services allocated to BEE companies," Comins added.

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