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Ponte City – a challenge in more ways than one
Strong returns and real-world change go hand in hand. We’re building a property portfolio that performs financially, socially and environmentally. From scaling renewables to designing green-certified buildings, we invest with purpose to deliver value that lasts for our clients, our communities and the planet. Investing with impact, for impact .
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This isn’t just investment. It’s investment that delivers now and provides for tomorrow.
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Call 011 944 6000 or visit www.growthpoint.co.za
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O nce a year a group of super-fit of Johannesburg’s famous 54-storey concrete tower. The record time? 5 minutes and 47 seconds. Finishers’ medals are handed out on the top floor, where participants tuck into breakfast and share the highs and lows of climbing up the innards of a building which residents of Johannesburg either love or hate. Joburgers take on the Ponte City Challenge: a race up the 900+ stairs Ponte City has held some interesting records itself. From 1975 (when it was built) to 2019, it was the building in Africa with the most floors (54), and from 1975 to 2023 it was the tallest residential building in Africa at 173m. It was also Africa’s first cylindrical building, towering over Berea. Its famous neon sign – the largest in the Southern Hemisphere –
originally advertised Coca Cola before being replaced by Vodacom. The building was designed with a hollow interior to meet city building regulations of the 1970s which stipulated that bathrooms and kitchens had to have a window. If your apartment is near the top, you peer out of your inner atrium windows down a dizzyling deep tower. Watch the video to see how the White Rabbit must have felt when he tumbled down the hole in Alice in Wonderland or James Bond’s arch-enemy Blofeld, as he was dropped down a brick chimney in his wheelchair. Ponte’s City’s fortunes have waxed and waned over the decades. In the early 2000s its 484 apartments underwent an extensive renovation, and earlier this year it was for sale by private tender.
October 2025 | Issue 141 | Asset Magazine 99
98 Asset Magazine | Issue 141 | October 2025
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