Construction has started on the first building in the Jewel City redevelopment project in Johannesburg.

Jewel City is located in the eastern CBD of Johannesburg, on Fox Street, placed between Maboneng and Absa precincts.

The redevelopment consists of six city blocks, five of which have existing commercial buildings on them.

The project is being run by investment group Divercity, which aims to combine commercial buildings with affordable residential accommodation to create inclusive and diverse neighbourhoods.

Divercity’s key shareholders and stakeholders include Atterbury Property, Ithemba Property and Talis Property Fund, and its cornerstone investors are RMH Property and Nedbank Property Partners.

Property developer Atterbury is managing the development for Divercity and reports that Nomad Construction is the appointed contractor of the first residential redevelopment, Block One.

The WBHO/Matheo JV is the appointed contractor for the first new residential building, Block Six, and all other elements of the development.

By remodelling Jewel City’s existing buildings and constructing new buildings of over 40,000sqm, Divercity is converting a formerly closed-off area of the city into a thriving, modern inner-city neighbourhood, it said.

Jewel City will reopen to the public in 2020 as a mixed-use precinct, including 1,200 new residential apartments in its first phase and up to 1,000 in its second phase.

The project is expected to have a total development value of more than R1.2 billion upon completion.

According to the developers, the master programme for Jewel City has been orchestrated so the development of all six buildings of the first phase will be completed at the same time.

“There will be a crescendo of activity as those buildings that require less time for completion are progressively added to the active construction programme,” said Derrick Pautz, Atterbury Development Manager.

Residents are expected to move into the Jewel City apartments from November 2019 as the first floors of residential development are completed.

Upper floors will become available first, moving down the buildings until all floors are finished with Phase 1 completion in April 2020.

Location and Plan





Block 1 – Residential and Retail









Block 2 – Commercial and Retail









Block 4 – Retail





Block 5 – Commercial and Retail









Block 6 – Residential and Retail









Read: A look at Jewel City – a massive redevelopment project in the middle of Joburg’s CBD