Centennial Place Century City: Why This Established Office Building Still Works
When people talk about the best-known office buildings in Century City, the newer developments often get most of the attention.
I understand why. New buildings photograph well, the receptions are impressive and they are easy to market.
But when I am walking buildings with tenants, I tend to look at things a little differently.
I want to know whether the building actually works.
Can you accommodate the business properly? Is there enough parking? What happens when the power goes off? Can staff get there? Is the floor plate efficient? What will the fit-out cost? And, most importantly, does the total deal make sense once everything is included?
That is why Centennial Place in Century City remains an interesting building.
It is not the newest development in the precinct, but it combines something that is becoming increasingly difficult to find in Cape Town: large A-grade office floor plates, established infrastructure, backup power, fibre connectivity, secure access and a recognised Green Star environmental rating, all within one of Cape Town's strongest decentralised commercial nodes.
For the right business, that combination matters far more than simply being in the newest building.
What is Centennial Place in Century City?
Centennial Place is an A-grade commercial office development at 1 Bridge Street in Century City, Cape Town, within the Waterford commercial precinct.
The development comprises East and West Blocks, with large rectangular office floor plates capable of extending beyond 2,000m² per block. Public building information describes Centennial Place as particularly suited to businesses looking for larger, flexible office configurations.
That is one of the first things that makes the building different.
Cape Town has plenty of offices in the 200m² to 500m² range.
Finding 1,000m², 2,000m² or more where the space can still work efficiently is a different exercise entirely.
For a larger corporate, regional head office, technology company or operation trying to consolidate several teams into one location, the shape of the floor plate can have a significant impact on how well the office actually works.
And that is something I think tenants sometimes underestimate.
Large floor plates are more important than they sound
A large office is not automatically an efficient office.
I have walked through buildings where a company technically has enough square metres, but the space is broken across different floors, awkward wings or narrow sections that make the office difficult to plan.
You then start duplicating kitchens, meeting rooms, reception areas and support spaces simply because the building forces you to.
Centennial Place is different.
Its larger, rectangular floor plates can make it easier to create a proper balance between open-plan workspace, private offices, meeting rooms, boardrooms, collaboration areas, kitchens and staff facilities.
For a business with 100, 150 or 200 employees, that can make a real difference.
It can also give a tenant more flexibility when the business grows.
There is a big difference between having 2,000m² on one efficient floor and having the same area spread awkwardly across a building.
On paper, the square metres are the same.
Operationally, they are not.
Centennial Place has a genuine Green Star credential
This is probably one of the most important facts about the building, and it is worth explaining properly.
Centennial Place achieved a 4-Star Green Star Existing Building Performance rating from the Green Building Council of South Africa.
According to Century City's official awards register, Centennial Place first received a 4-Star Existing Building Performance Pilot recognition in 2015 and subsequently achieved a 4-Star Green Star Existing Building Performance v1 rating in 2018.
That distinction matters.
There is a difference between a building being marketed as "green" and a building having been assessed through an established environmental building-rating system.
Existing Building Performance is also particularly relevant because it relates to the operational performance of an existing building.
For tenants, that can feed into a much bigger conversation around energy efficiency, water consumption, operating costs and corporate sustainability requirements.
I would not tell a tenant that a Green Star rating automatically means their electricity bill will be a particular percentage lower. That depends on how the business operates, its equipment, working hours, air-conditioning use and staff density.
But I would absolutely consider the rating a positive feature of the building.
For larger corporates with ESG reporting requirements, it can become even more relevant.
Backup power is important, but ask the right questions
Centennial Place is publicly marketed with backup generator infrastructure, together with fibre connectivity, access control and secure parking.
That is good.
But I would give the same advice here that I give tenants when viewing any office in Century City:
Do not stop at asking, "Does the building have a generator?"
Ask what it actually powers.
Does it cover the tenant's full office?
Does it cover the air-conditioning?
Are there limitations on electrical load?
How is diesel recovered?
Is there a generator levy?
Does the server room remain operational?
Those details become particularly important for a technology company, contact centre, financial business or any other operation where downtime has a real cost.
The generator is a feature.
Understanding the generator is due diligence.
That distinction can save a tenant a lot of frustration later.
Fibre and connectivity are another Century City advantage
Centennial Place itself has fibre infrastructure, but the bigger advantage is the telecommunications environment around it.
Century City has had a central open-access high-speed fibre network for more than a decade. The precinct's connectivity infrastructure also supports public Wi-Fi and broader smart-city systems.
For most modern businesses, this is no longer a nice extra.
Microsoft Teams, cloud applications, VoIP systems, off-site backups, remote access, video conferencing and increasingly AI-enabled business systems all rely on reliable connectivity.
However, if connectivity is critical to your operation, I would still have the company's IT provider inspect the building before signing the lease.
Confirm the available fibre providers, routes, installation time and whether you need redundancy.
A brochure telling you that fibre exists is not the same as designing proper connectivity for the business.
The Waterford position works well for larger occupiers
Centennial Place sits in the Waterford area of Century City, around Bridge Street, Century Boulevard and Boundary Road.
For me, this is an important part of the building's appeal.
You are within the larger Century City commercial environment, but you are not dependent on being directly inside the busiest retail section of the precinct.
The building has access towards Century Boulevard and the surrounding road network, with the N1 forming the major regional connection between Century City, Cape Town CBD and the Northern Suburbs. Public transport also operates throughout Century City, including MyCiTi, Golden Arrow and rail connections.
For an employer with a larger team, accessibility should form part of the property decision from the beginning.
I have seen tenants focus so heavily on the office itself that they only start asking how 150 employees are going to get there once they have already fallen in love with the space.
That is the wrong way around.
The building needs to work for the people using it every day.
Parking needs to be calculated properly
Centennial Place is generally marketed at a parking ratio of around 4 bays per 100m², although the actual allocation and mix should always be confirmed against the particular office being considered.
This becomes very important when looking at larger offices.
A 2,000m² office at four bays per 100m² would theoretically provide around 80 bays.
That may sound like a lot.
It may also be nowhere near enough for a business accommodating 200 people.
This is particularly relevant for high-density businesses.
Before signing anything, I would compare the proposed staff count against the parking allocation and then look at how many employees genuinely require a car.
Century City's public transport network can help with that equation, but every business is different.
Parking should be worked out at the same time as the space requirement, not after the office has been selected.
The wider Century City environment adds value
One of the reasons I remain positive about office space in Century City is that you are not leasing into an isolated office park.
There is a functioning city around the office.
Century City combines commercial buildings with retail, hotels, restaurants, residential developments, conferencing facilities, public transport and significant public open space. Intaka Island alone provides a 16-hectare wetlands and nature reserve within the precinct.
It is easy to dismiss these things as lifestyle features.
I do not.
If an employee can meet someone for coffee, go to the gym, buy groceries, visit a bank, have lunch or run an errand without driving across Cape Town, that has practical value.
The same applies to clients.
Hotels, restaurants, conferencing facilities and meeting venues nearby make it easier to host people coming into Cape Town from elsewhere.
The office is still the priority.
But the environment around it matters.
Security is bigger than the individual building
Centennial Place has its own access control and security measures, but tenants also benefit from Century City's wider precinct-management infrastructure.
The Century City Property Owners' Association operates a 24-hour Security Operations Centre supported by security personnel, surveillance cameras, vehicles and technology across the precinct.
I think it is important to be sensible when discussing security.
No commercial precinct in Cape Town should be sold as crime-proof.
That is not realistic.
What Century City does offer is a professionally managed environment where common areas, roads and public infrastructure form part of a larger security and management system.
For businesses whose employees arrive early, leave late or operate extended hours, that is a meaningful consideration.
Who does Centennial Place suit?
I would not recommend Centennial Place to every tenant.
That is not how property advice should work.
If you need a small 100m² boutique office and want to be directly above restaurants and coffee shops, there are probably other buildings in Century City I would show you first.
Where Centennial Place becomes much more interesting is for businesses that need scale.
I would put it on the shortlist for:
Corporate and regional head offices
Technology and software companies
Professional services firms
Larger administrative operations
Financial and insurance businesses
Businesses consolidating several smaller offices
Companies requiring substantial contiguous office accommodation
Its strengths are practical.
Large floor plates. Good corporate infrastructure. Backup power. Fibre. Security. Parking. Environmental credentials. And a recognised Century City address.
That is a very different value proposition from choosing a building purely because it is new.
What does office space cost at Centennial Place?
This is where I would avoid relying on an old article or portal listing.
Rental at Centennial Place changes according to the particular office, size, existing fit-out, floor, parking allocation, occupation date and the commercial terms being offered by the landlord.
The better approach is to check the current Centennial Place availability and asking rentals when you are actually looking.
For context, tenants can also compare the building against Brightwave's current Century City commercial property market data.
But there is another point I would make.
The cheapest rental is not necessarily the cheapest office.
A fitted office at a higher rate can sometimes cost a business considerably less than a cheaper white-box space once partitions, flooring, electrical work, data cabling, meeting rooms, kitchens, furniture and professional fees are included.
Likewise, a landlord offering a worthwhile tenant installation allowance can completely change the economics of a deal.
This is why I prefer comparing the total cost of occupation rather than just putting rental rates next to each other.
I covered this in more detail in our guide on how to choose office space in Century City.
What I would check before leasing at Centennial Place
If I were taking a tenant through Centennial Place, there are a few things I would want properly confirmed before we start negotiating a lease:
The exact gross rental and what it includes
Parking allocation and parking cost
Generator coverage and generator recoveries
Existing office fit-out and what can be reused
Tenant installation allowance
Fibre providers and redundancy options
Air-conditioning condition and operating arrangement
Additional levies and recoveries
Lease escalation
Beneficial occupation
Signage opportunities
Access-control requirements
Reinstatement obligations at the end of the lease
Expansion possibilities if the company grows
None of those questions is particularly exciting.
They are, however, the questions that determine whether the deal still looks good two years after you have signed it.
My view on Centennial Place
I think Centennial Place occupies an interesting position in the Century City office market.
It is an established building, but it still offers many of the things businesses are now prioritising: backup power, fibre connectivity, secure access, sizeable floor plates, environmental credentials and a well-managed surrounding precinct.
Its 4-Star Green Star Existing Building Performance rating gives it a sustainability credential that many older office buildings simply do not have.
But for me, the biggest selling point is probably simpler than that.
It can accommodate larger businesses properly.
When a company needs 1,000m², 2,000m² or more, the shortlist starts getting much smaller.
You are no longer comparing dozens of offices.
You are comparing a handful of buildings that can meet the space requirement, parking requirement, technical requirement and budget at the same time.
Centennial Place deserves to be part of that conversation.
Not because it is automatically the right building.
Because, for the right occupier, it can be a very practical one.
Frequently Asked Questions About Centennial Place
Where is Centennial Place in Century City?
Centennial Place is located at 1 Bridge Street, Century City, Cape Town, within the Waterford commercial precinct. It is positioned close to Century Boulevard and the wider Century City road and public transport network.
Is Centennial Place an A-grade office building?
Yes. Centennial Place is publicly identified as an A-grade commercial office building and comprises East and West Blocks with substantial office floor plates.
Is Centennial Place Green Star rated?
Yes. Centennial Place achieved a 4-Star Green Star Existing Building Performance v1 rating from the Green Building Council of South Africa in 2018, following an earlier 4-Star Existing Building Performance Pilot recognition in 2015.
Does Centennial Place have backup power?
Yes. Public building information confirms backup generator infrastructure at Centennial Place. Tenants should confirm the precise generator coverage and associated recoveries applicable to the office they are considering.
Does Centennial Place have fibre?
Yes. Centennial Place has fibre infrastructure, while Century City also benefits from a broader open-access high-speed fibre network.
Does Centennial Place have lifts?
Yes. Public building information for Centennial Place confirms elevator access, together with wheelchair-friendly facilities and accessible ablutions.
How much parking is available at Centennial Place?
Public leasing information generally indicates a ratio of around four parking bays per 100m², although the exact number, type and cost of bays should be confirmed for each available office.
Is Centennial Place suitable for a head office?
Yes. The large floor plates, corporate environment, backup infrastructure, fibre and parking make Centennial Place particularly relevant to corporate and regional head-office requirements. Whether it is the right building will depend on the size, employee count, parking needs, budget and fit-out requirements of the individual company.
What office space is currently available at Centennial Place?
Availability changes as leases are concluded and new spaces come to market. Rather than relying on an older article, view Brightwave's live Centennial Place office availability for the latest offices, sizes and asking rentals.
Looking for office space at Centennial Place?
If Centennial Place is on your shortlist, we can compare it properly against other offices available in Century City.
Tell us your required size, staff count, parking requirement, budget and occupation date.
We can then look at Centennial Place alongside the other buildings that genuinely fit the requirement, rather than sending you a list of everything available.
That normally leads to a much better property decision.
View current Centennial Place offices or contact Brightwave Commercial Property to discuss your requirement.
