Carlton Centre 6.09

The Carlton Centre is a skyscraper and shopping centre located in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa. At 223m, it has been the tallest office building in Africa since 1973. The Carlton Centre has 50 floors. The foundations of the two buildings in the complex are 5m in diameter and extend 15m down to the bedrock, 35m below street level. The building houses both offices and shops, and has over 46 per cent of the floor area below ground level. The Carlton Centre is linked to the Carlton Hotel by a below-ground shopping centre with over 180 shops.HistoryThe Carlton Centre was designed by the American architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Anglo American Properties began construction in the late 1960s by demolishing the old Carlton Hotel and the closing roads to form a city superblock. Excavations for the Carlton began in January 1967, and took two years to complete. Although occupation of the Centre began in 1971, construction was not finally completed until 1974. The building officially opened in 1973 at a total cost of over R88 million.The building is the head office of transport parastatal Transnet, who purchased it in 1999 from Anglo American Properties (Amprop). In June 2007, then Transnet group chief executive Maria Ramos revealed the company's intention to offer the building for sale. The Carlton Centre has served as Transnet's headquarters since 2000, after the parastatal purchased it for R33 million from Anglo American Properties. The disposal of the property forms part of Transnet's restructuring program which includes the disposal of non-core assets. Due to the economic downturn that began in 2008, the parastatal announced it would not seek a buyer until markets recovered.