Phakalane Estate aims to expand
Katlego Isaacs | Tuesday February 1, 2022 06:00
Founded 30 years ago by David Magang, Phakalane Estates came from humble beginnings to rapidly expand into developing one of the most desirable neighbourhoods in the country.
To mark the 30th anniversary, the estates invested over P45 million on major renovations to the Golf Estate properties namely the hotel, golf course, and conference centre.
Phakalane Estates CEO Subramaniam Parthiban expressed the company’s focus on matching changing market demands by developing facilities and properties that exceed the expectations of their markets. This strategy first culminated in the development of their world-class conference centre.
“We’re very proud to say our conference centre can hold regular high-end conferences and has even had the capacity to hold Troika summits with eight heads of African states,” Parthiban said.
In keeping up with the trend to match the growing upmarket demands of the country, Parthiban detailed expansion plans both in and out of Gaborone made to provide an upmarket experience.
These expansions have already made their way to Shakawe and Charles Hill in the form of the new Acacia Mall branches, while further plans to expand have been made for Nata and another undisclosed location for this year.
In Gaborone, the construction of 84 single and double bedroom apartments is expected to commence on January 31.
The construction of these new apartments has been set for Peto Estates, a gated community within the Phakalane neighbourhood strategically placed a stone's throw away from multiple shopping centres such as Mowana Park and Acacia Mall.
Following the success of the launch of Peto Estates back in 2014, when over 300 plots ranging in cost from roughly P300,000 to P1.4m were immediately sold out with a high surplus of demand, Phakalane Estates boasts strong confidence in the market demand for new apartments in the area. The apartments are set to follow the trend of the estates with state of the art modern designs and facilities that will unequivocally catch the eye of professionals in the market for a smaller yet upscale rental property in Gaborone. Additionally, Parthiban expressed plans for the creation of an all-new industrial park in Phakalane aiming to expand and consolidate the existing industrial strength the community already boasts.
However, while Phakalane Estates remains confident of its upcoming expansions, the development of the community has not been without challenges.
More specifically in the challenges incurred with disputes between the estates and the government concerning the development of infrastructure in Phakalane.
“A normal business faces challenges in financing and raising capital and so on – and we also face such challenges, but the biggest challenge we face is that the nature of our business makes us have to interact with several relevant stakeholders such as roads, power, and water,” Parthiban said.
Phakalane estates, being a private township developer, owns and controls the property that it develops, but it remains at the mercy of the government being required to deeply involve it in all its major infrastructure development projects.
Naturally, a relationship that involves multiple government organisations is always going to be rocky and thus far this has been the experience of Phakalane Estates.
Decades of long back and forth disputes with the government including failed attempts for Phakalane to develop its own independent alternative power development plant have frustrated the developer.
Despite this, Phakalane Estates continues to endure and expand the development of its upmarket properties across the nation.