Durban property developer Newlyn Group said the first warehouse at its Newlyn Logistics Park in Gqeberha is close to completion. Work on a second warehouse of the same size will start in October 2026.
The park in the Eastern Cape covers about 150 000m². The group said the full development will be worth around R640 million.
“The first phase is where you establish the systems and do the hard yards,” said Viresh Persad, chief development officer at Newlyn Group. He said the team, local relationships and processes are now in place, so the company can move quickly when tenants need space.
In a project release on 15 October 2026, the group said Phase 1A should reach practical completion by December 2026. This phase has a 10 000m² warehouse and a 10 000m² heavy-duty yard. It also has between 200m² and 300m² of office space.
Phase 1B will add a second 10 000m² warehouse with a matching yard. Later phases have been approved for warehouses of 12 000m², 7 000m² and 3 000m², depending on what tenants want.
The site is on Cape Road, also known as the R102, and is zoned Industrial 1. It is about 5km from the N2 highway. The Port of Gqeberha is about 20 minutes away.
The group said the park is aimed at clean logistics, FMCG distribution, courier companies and light manufacturing.
According to the company, the warehouse floors are 200mm thick and can carry loads of 10 to 12 tonnes. The joints in the concrete are cut to line up with the spacing of storage racks.
The columns stand 24m apart in both directions, which leaves wide open floor space. The roof structure is 10.5m high, so racks can be stacked up to seven levels.
Persad said this height lets tenants use normal forklifts and handling equipment. They do not have to buy costly special machines for narrow aisles.
“Good logistics infrastructure is not necessarily about specifying the biggest or most expensive solution,” Persad said. “We want tenants to have the infrastructure they need without unnecessarily building cost into their operations.”
He said many features that tenants used to add later are now built into the company’s standard design from the start.
Each outside yard is the same size as its warehouse floor. The yards use thick concrete paving blocks made for heavy trucks and container handlers, with extra concrete at busy turning points.
The steel frames are treated to resist rust for 15 years. The roofs are built strong enough to carry solar panels.
The group said fire protection and utility systems at the park go beyond the minimum that municipal rules require. Newlyn Group has developed logistics and freight property across South Africa for 30 years.
Source: this article is based on reporting by Moneyweb. Image: Moneyweb. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Business desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Anelisa Nkuna covers business and money news for Tzaneen Voice. Anelisa reports on the rand, fuel prices, interest rates, jobs, Eskom, Transnet, farming and company results. The aim is simple: explain what the numbers mean for household budgets, small businesses and workers in South Africa.