Annenberg Property Group Celebrates Its 50th Year In Commercial And Industrial Property In Cape Town

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It was 50 years ago in 1972 when David Annenberg founded the company.

At the time, David was working for a JSE listed company, Corlett Drive Estates, which went into liquidation.

He headed up their industrial sales and leasing division in Cape Town which was short-lived due to the demise of Corlett Drive Estates.

David needed to find a job in property and instead of joining another established brokerage, he decided to go it alone and opened what was then known as David Annenberg Pty Ltd from a single office in the Union Castle Building, Adderley Street, offered to him by his auditors at the time.

David decided to concentrate on the industrial property market. There were a handful of well-established industrial brokerages in the market at the time such as Christies, Magnus Penny, Geoff Chait, Dunlop, Heywood - all of which are no longer in existence.

Still going strong

Today, David Annenberg Pty Ltd, which later became known as Annenberg Real Estate and is currently trading as Annenberg Property Group, is still in existence 50 years later and going strong.

Like father, like son

In 1975, David's son Dudley, joined the company just before his 19th birthday and together father and son grew the company from humble beginnings to become a force to be reckoned with in the Western Cape industrial property market.

Industry in the '70s and '80s was flourishing, particularly the clothing industry in the Western Cape. Many a clothing factory was relocated from Woodstock to Lansdowne over this time as business expanded.

The start of Montague Gardens

In 1989, when every property developer was reeling from the high interest rate hike at the time, Annenberg was given a mandate by Safren to dispose of their 30-hectare site in Montague Gardens.

At the time, Montague Gardens was considered a long way out of Cape Town with one of the original Makro stores and a dozen or so industrial buildings.

There was absolutely no interest in the property despite a 6,700m² warehouse, office block and workshop included in the deal on extremely favourable terms.

It was an opportunity not to be missed and with R550,000 in the bank, Annenberg approached Cape of Good Hope Bank to fund the purchase of the property.

It was Annenberg's intention to subdivide the land into 2,000m² sites and sell them. The bank required a certain number of pre-sales in order for them to fund the purchase and servicing of the land.

Annenberg achieved this and over the next 2 years managed to sell all the land at a starting price of R45m² rising to R200m² while retaining the improvements which were rented out.

This was the turning point for the company in which Annenberg also became a property developer/owner.

Shortly thereafter in 1991, David passed away at the age of 68 and Dudley continued to grow the company.

Over the years the company has grown in size and today is represented in all the industrial areas of the Western Cape.

Dudley is ably assisted by co-directors Andries Louw and Andrew Jefferson who have both been with the company for the past 16 years. The company is further supported by a dedicated team most of whom have been with the company in excess of 10 years.

While its core business is industrial and commercial leasing, in 2012 Annenberg developed one of the first private day hospitals to be established in the Western Cape in Paarl for the Cure Day Hospital Group.

Today Annenberg, in partnership with client Anglo African Estates, has a medical property portfolio in excess of R600 million with its flagship development being Panorama Healthcare Centre in Parow.

In our 50th year, we are into our 3rd year of developing Groot Parys Lifestyle Estate in Paarl.

This retirement development for over 49's is entering its 2nd phase of what will ultimately be a 172 free standing homes and a 60 unit sectional title apartment development. For more information visit www.grootparysestate.co.za

Looking to the future

How will the future unfold as far as Annenberg sees things?

Fortunately we are located in the Western Cape, which is considered a paradise in a country struggling economically due to electricity constraints and inept dysfunctional municipalities in the rest of the country.

As a result, we see Annenberg continuing to benefit from the situation and we look forward to assisting those companies that have decided to relocate to the Western Cape.

We thank all our clients for their support over the past 50 years and we look forward to the next 10 years ahead of us