Last year, I had a call from the Westmead Group, a KZN based operation looking for a trucking yard at the Airport. I did not have any suitable properties for them, so I referred them to a company in Airport Industria that has a leasehold yard, which they rent out for short term car and truck parking.  They secured some parking on a monthly basis but had major problems, as their trucks were continuously getting stuck in the yard which was not properly compacted.

One of the landlords in the Airport alerted me that they had a 3500m² yard  becoming available with a small warehouse and office on it. Coincidently, this yard had been leased by a company for many years. They were vacating because they had purchased a property in Epping. By pure coincidence, this unrelated company had a very similar name, Westmead Truck Stop! Large trucking yards are very difficult to come by in Cape Town’s Central Industrial areas. They are always in high demand. especially in the Airport Industrial areas.

I immediately leapt into action and called the manager for the Cape Region, Langton Chakura. I told him that he would have to submit an offer quickly at asking rental. If he didn’t he would likely lose this property. It was the crazy time,  close to the end of the year and quick decisions were difficult to obtain.  Everybody was about to shut down for the festive break. I remember pushing hard to get a commitment from Westmead. I told them that there would be many other interested parties and this was not sales talk! Within a week, the landlord called me to say he had three other offers and he gave me until the Friday to get a firm offer from Westmead. He said he would look at the offers over the weekend and he would choose the best offer on  the Monday. Westmead gave me an offer on the Monday but it was too late. The landlord had accepted the offer from a gas supply depot.

I gave Langton the news that he had lost the property and we all left disappointed, on a much needed festive break. We returned to the office in the second week of January. I was just starting to call clients to start building my pipeline for the new year and I received an unexpected call from the landlord. The Gas Depot, for an unknown reason, had pulled out of the lease early in January! I immediately called Langton and told him that he needed to submit an immediate offer and I again told him that this was not just sales talk! By a stroke of luck, his chairman happened to be in Cape Town and he came and viewed the property the same morning and submitted an offer on the same day. Westmead’s offer was accepted by the landlord! A great start to the year for Westmead Group and Airport Property.

The property is 17 Milan Street, Airport Industria , Cape Town and the tenant is Western Cape Distributors (Pty) Ltd, better known as the Westmead Group.

The building is 220m² in size with an extensive yard of over 3500m², and the 2-year lease was concluded by Guy de la Porte

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