New name on Cape Town's Riebeek Street

Capetonians are soon going to come across a new name on the block in the form of Deneys Reitz House.

Previously known as the Southern Life Centre, the Riebeek Street A-grade building is changing its name next month.The introduction of Deneys Reitz House came about when the leading South African law firm signed a new 10-year lease for 4,000 square metres in the building, according to Rennie Property which manages the building.

Deneys Reitz has been a tenant of the building for the last 15 years and recently required a significant amount of additional space to house its growing Cape Town office.

Rennie Property brokered the deal on behalf of Bestinver Company South Africa, the building's owners. The building name change was part of the deal and came into effect from 1 June 2010. The new signage will be erected in early October.

"The Cape Town city centre is a fantastic place to base your operations and to work from. This is another exciting evolution of the CBD," said Steve Rennie, managing director of Rennie Property. "This also shows that there are significant property deals still out there and that both tenants and landlords are becoming more flexible and creative in their negotiations."

Southern Life Centre, now Deneys Reitz House, is a 17-storey commercial office block with retail space on the ground floor opening onto the Thibault Square pedestrian area. Located at 8 Riebeek Street, Cape Town, it lies at the heart of the CBD's financial district.

As well as the law firm, Deneys Reitz House is home to Rennie Property's Cape Town offices as well as a range of financial and shipping tenants. It had been known as Southern Life Centre since its refurbishment 20 years ago.

Prior to that it was called the African Life Centre. Built in the modernist style, the building was awarded the SAPOA building merit award in 1992.

The A-grade office block still has some space available for rent.

Posted at 11:40AM Oct 01, 2010 by Editor in Cities and Towns  |