Inospace Appoints Community Leader to Overhaul Industrial Areas

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, November 14, 2018 (Newswire.com) - When the hugely popular Atlantic Seaboard councillor Jacques Weber stepped down from politics in 2016, despite winning his ward by a 92% margin, everyone was wondering what his next big move would be. And now we know.

The news on the street is that Jacques has been appointed as Regional Director of Inospace, a R1billion property fund that specializes in disrupting traditional approaches to industrial and commercial properties by converting undervalued and underutilized properties into dynamic, customer-centric multi-use business parks with shared business centres, meeting rooms and a host of value-added services.

It seems almost inevitable that the appetite for space-as-a-service solutions, in all its various forms, will make up a growing proportion of commercial real estate landscape for the foreseeable future.

Jacques Weber , Director, Inospace

Jacques will be playing a key role in the upliftment and rejuvenation of many of the city’s oldest and ignored areas – including depleted industrial zones like Paarden Eiland and Epping. He’ll be heading up Inospace’s Urban Regeneration programme that aims to unlock potential in older industrial zones by introducing modern, people-centric spaces and services without the gentrification of heritage buildings or neighbourhoods, or the displacing of long-term residents.

Jacques relishes the unique opportunity that his new position provides as a platform to get proactive about many of the issues that Cape Town faces, and help steer the city towards a more inclusive, integrated and environmentally future.

This is more than a cosmetic function; it’s a holistic reimagining of how old buildings and new thinking can create thriving, dynamic communities of like-minded businesses and people.

One of Jacques strongest skills as a councillor was his ability to communicate clearly, uncritically and constructively with over 60 000 pretty demanding residents with very different and vocal viewpoints, and moderate healthy debate across a broad range of contentious issues.

He was always incredibly well informed on everything that affected people in his ward - from burst pipes, electrical outages, police activity, crime updates and appeals for fatigued firefighters.

Whenever people wanted to know why the SAP helicopter was circling overhead, or why there was a traffic snag, their first port of call was always Jacques Facebook page – where they could always get the latest, and most informed, up to date news and views.

By the end of his term, he had received or responded to close to 55 000 emails and responded to or posted 15 000 social media posts in 24 months.

His role at inospace was a natural progression for the high profile politician. “I think the constant, always-on demand was one of the most challenging, yet rewarding, aspects of being a ward councillor,” explains Jacques.

“In the commercial property world, communication and information are also of the essence. We have almost 300 independent businesses in our portfolio of business parks across the country, and it’s important to keep everyone happy, informed and productive.”

“The business environment is changing at an unprecedented rate, and so are the needs of a modern workforce. Businesses are looking for greater convenience and cost efficiencies, and it’s up to switched-on space providers to adapt their offerings to meet these needs.

“Inospace is part of a global trend of highly specialised real estate businesses taking advantage of a structural market shift moving towards a customer-first and flexible approach” he explains.

“Inospace typically buy larger buildings and transform them into multi-let business parks comprising offices, studios, storage, and traditional warehouse spaces. Unlike traditional real estate income funds, our model works differently. We acquire partially or fully vacant properties but are able to quickly turn empty space into high-yielding, flexible-use products through our business operations.”

The company has had a record year in terms of transactional volumes and has recently opened seven new business parks in Cape Town including the Powder Mill in Ndabeni, Island Works in Paarden Eiland and Epping Works near the Airport.  The tenants can enjoy a range of free shared services on site including restaurants, business centres, meeting rooms and technology solutions.

Inospace is an example of a modern trend in property that can be broadly termed ‘space-as-a-service’ – space on demand, with a strong service and community element. The space-as-a-service model is customer centric and therefore helps to provide a significantly better overall experience, which in turn attracts and retains customers/tenants (and resonates equally well with their people/talent).

“Our centres are staffed with the community in mind – on-site centre managers help to curate an experience which goes beyond the provision of space and more towards the curation of a loyal community” explains Weber.

He believes that the recognition of value in providing space-as-a-service will cause landlords to re-evaluate their strategies. “We are seeing a growing number of businesses embracing community based flexible serviced solutions above conventional leasing. It seems almost inevitable that the appetite for space-as-a-service solutions, in all its various forms, will make up a growing proportion of commercial real estate landscape for the foreseeable future.”

This is one community leader who has found his home in providing community based real estate solutions for a rapidly changing work environment.

About Inospace

Inospace is a leading operator of branded business parks providing conventional space and flexible workspace in South Africa. The Company's core strategy is the acquisition of business parks at attractive yields, the integration of these business parks into its network of sites under the Company's own name as well as offering a range of branded products within those sites, and the reconfiguration and upgrade of existing and vacant space to appeal to the local market, through intensive asset management and investment. The Company's strategy aims to deliver attractive returns for shareholders by increasing rental income and improving cost recoveries and capital values, as well as by enhancing those returns through financing its assets on favourable terms. Once sites are mature, and net income and values have been optimised, the Company may take the opportunity to refinance the sites to release capital for investment in new sites or consider the disposal of sectional title units in their parks in order to recycle equity into assets which present greater opportunity for the asset management skills of the Company's team.

Source: Inospace Media