What? A construction crane in Hillbrow? Until recently, a flesh-and-blood blue crane would have been a likelier sight in Johannesburg's legendary high-rise suburb. But this winter, a veritable steel bird took flight over a site on the intersection of Kapteijn and Quartz streets. On that corner, Boost Property Management is building a 10-storey, 128-unit apartment block, named Kapteijn Corner, at a cost of about R40m. It opens in November. By all accounts, this is the first new residential block to be built in Hillbrow since the late 1980s. That makes it surprising, and symbolically potent - but as a show of faith in the area, it's by no means a flash in the pan: savvy developers have been investing consistently in Hillbrow, refurbishing buildings and establishing neighbourhood improvement districts, for several years. And while the gentrification story is dominated by flashy projects like Maboneng, on the eastern edge of the CBD, the substance of inner-city renewal will come from de...
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