Inspired by the Melville 27 Boxes, a JPC development, the Johannesburg Property Company has unveiled another installation offering the community with convenience, comfort and an opportunity to benefit from locally driven business. Assembled from recycled and re-purposed shipping containers much in the same way as Melville’s 27 Boxes has been established, the JPC provides for a Green Trading and Public Convenience (PC) Facility, in Region C, Florida CBD.
What was once known as Faan Smit Park neglected and left vacant, the JPC developed the now Melville 27 Boxes, into a retail centre constructed from recycled shipping containers. Through a series of developments having taken place since its inception, 27 Boxes continues to evolve into a hub of arty attractions, culinary charms, galleries, book sellers and speciality stores each well frequented by the local community.
With similar intentions as the Melville installation, the new JPC Florida PC component is located in a 1370 m2 compound adjacent to the 3rd Street Bridge on a major pedestrian route between the Florida CBD and transport modal interface.
It offers male and female toilet facilities, caters for disabled users and has a baby change room too. Patrons of the facility are assured of comfort, cleanliness and an upmarket feel, fitted with modern easy to maintain floor finishes, scratch resistant walls and ceilings, floor drains and partition walls elevated off the floor for easy cleaning.
Over and above the PC facilities, the JPC installation in Florida caters to a number commercial entities too, including a chesa nyama, spaza shop, family store, hairdresser, barbers, tailor, cobbler, vegetable shop and a cell phone kiosk. These commercial entities, arranged around the primary movement route through the site will provide income to the facility which will off-set the running costs of the entire property.
Exquisitely landscaped the property has been sculpted into a series of terraces that form retaining walls surrounding a planted mini-amphitheatre at the centre of the facility along with a loading dock in the eastern service yard portion of the development.
The 1370 m2 facility has been designed to be a visible but completely secure, with visually permeable perimeter fencing, pedestrian and vehicle access points and with turnstile and swing gates.
In addition the entire site is provided with LED solar driven security lighting and two sets of signage walls built as part of the perimeter barriers that offer prime advertising space, and an additional income opportunity.
With water conservation high on the agenda and in further support of delivering sustainable and self-sufficient developments throughout the city, the JPC Florida PC installation is equipped with 5 x 5000 litre water tanks for rainwater harvesting. Driven by a solar powered pressure pump, harvested rainwater is used to supply ablution water and is further supplemented by an additional 4 x 5000l tanks in the service yard, should additional water storage be required.
Onsight lighting is strictly LED, solar powered by roof mounted solar panels, batteries and inverters housed within the secure caretaker component of the PC.
The only external grid connections are the sewer (Joburg Water) and dedicated pay-as-you-go power sockets in each of the commercial stores. The external service points supplied by Joburg Water and City Power are seen as back-up rather than as primary sources.
The JPC looks forward to planning future installations similar to the likes of the Florida PC compound and Melville’s 27 Boxes, providing for sustainable property solutions through the effective management of the City of Johannesburg’s property portfolio.