WestProp banks on alliances for growth
The Victoria Stock Exchange-listed property concern recently launched the US$300 million mixed-use Hills Golf Estate, a PPP between the company and the City of Harare.
Its other projects include Millennium Heights which is ongoing, Pokugara Residential Estate, Pomona City (ongoing), The Mall of Zimbabwe and Millennium Heights Office Park.
WestProp board chairperson Michael Louis told NewsDay Business that the company will step up collaborations to accelerate development of the projects.
“We formalised our first PPP with the City of Harare on the development of the Hills. I believe we can see ourselves going into more PPPs to provide the infrastructure that the estates need,” Louis said.
WestProp and City of Harare have 70% and 30% shares, respectively, in the multi-million-dollar Hills project.
He said the company was working on a strategic alliance “for our developments to go places” and required a “big international construction partner to take our developments to the next level”.
“We have to finalise a transaction with one of the largest African security companies. I believe in safety and security. There is no use in having all these community developments and these clusters and we can’t have the best technology that the country can offer. We have to stop moving from Bobby on the beat,” Louis said.
“As a result, we have to go to artificial intelligence, surveillance cameras [and] control rooms. We are quite advanced in our negotiations to announce an amalgamation with a top security company that is in Africa.”
Meanwhile, WestProp has moved to a new home in Mt Pleasant after outgrowing its former offices in Belgravia.
The company has been recruiting specialists in property management, development and construction, leading to the need for additional office space, according to chief executive officer Ken Sharpe.
The one-stop shop office complex will ensure that all customers’ needs are attended to in one place.
“The company has grown from just 10 permanent head office staff when it started to over 60 now. My biggest challenge in the last year has been not having enough office space to sit people,” Sharpe said.
“Our company is on the trajectory of continued growth. We are confident of Zimbabwe. We are confident of the future.”
The company is building a new office complex at Millennium City with capacity to host all its subsidiaries. The office block will form part of the office complexes feeding into the Mall of Zimbabwe.-newsday
