The name Linbro Park was derived from the surname of Edward James Brolin who owned a vast section of land between Alexandra and Modderfontein, portions of which he sold during the 1930’s and 1940’s during the boom of the Johannesburg CBD. This area came to be known as Linbro Park.
Linbro Park Aerial View
Linbro Park itself is comprised of two agricultural holding complexes, Modderfontein Agricultural Holdings and Linbro Park Agricultural Holdings measuring 400 hectares in extent east of the N3 freeway. The Linbro Park area itself is an important development opportunity that was designed to create a corridor between Randburg in the West and OR Tambo in the East. The corridor is also planned to intersect the north-south Corridor of Freedom along the Louis Botha corridor which links from Soweto past the Inner City into Sandton, strengthening connectivity to the metropolitan core.
If we look at the area as a whole there is Linbro Business Park, technically referred to as ‘Frankenwald’ (indicated in red) which is a very popular light industrial park just off Marlboro Drive and the N3 freeway and adjacent to Linbro Park Agricultural Holdings (indicated in green). The success of this business park has seen growth spread to just outside the park in an area non known as Longlake (indicated in purple) which is home to some state-of-the-art developments and industrial parks now. Development continues in this area with close to 100 000 m² currently in the development pipeline. This area borders on Modderfontein and the Modderfontein Reserve/Taroko Farm. Busamed Private Hospital opened in 2016 and is also located in this area. Longlake has attracted high density residential development over the last few years.
The other side of Marlboro Drive adjacent to Linbro Business Park is Linbro Park Agricultural Holdings which is also the focus of current and new development going forward. There has already been development here in the area which was previously predominantly large residential plots popular with the equestrian community. The map below shows how various zoning and uses with commercial on the north and south borders surrounding residential. The southern side is referred to as Meadowview which borders on Longmeadow Business Estate. Meadowview features large distribution centres for companies like DSV, Digistics and Triton Express and offers several tenant driven and tenant driven opportunities currently.
Proposed town planning and applications have changed within the area since the Urban Development Framework was first submitted in 2010. Since then there have been over 80 applications, some of which have already been developed. Proposed changes include:
- Commercial use (warehousing and limited manufacturing)
67 hectares was initially proposed at a FAR of 0.8 but this FAR is not being achieved, so the area has been increased to 98 hectares at a FAR of 0.5 which is more realistic and could allow for 546 000m² of bulk.
- Business 1 (Shops, offices, businesses and possible dwelling units)
Proposed reduction from 500 000m² of bulk to 240 000m², allocation for this use was seen to be initially far too high and could accommodate a very large regional shopping centre which is not deemed necessary for this area. Not all the sites need necessarily be used for business as the zoning allows for residential use as well.
- Office and other business
This is an unrealistic land use for this area as offices can be accommodated in the general business area so this would dramatically reduce the allocation from 170 000 m² to 30 000 m² and the remaining area can be allocated to residential development rather.
- Residential
If existing developments (e.g. Balwin) are anything to go by then 150 units per hectare is unlikely to materialize and realistically the number of units developed will be closer to 11 000 than the initial 23 000 anticipated.
Planning, provision for services, and development are ongoing processes and will undoubtedly continue to be tweaked over the coming years. What we can be assured of is the continued demand for quality space in the area, especially the demand for warehousing and logistics space. Should you be interested in finding more about the area or are looking for a property in the area then contact us today.
New Development Rydal Lane, Longlake
Courtesy LINBRO PARK URBAN DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK AND ROAD MASTER PLAN UPDATE draft (VBGD Town Planners & Gary Edwards Traffic Engineering
