At the recent South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA) 2015 conference, Empowered Spaces Architects the architects of the new WestconGroup Southern Africa building, received the award for the Best Industrial Development in South Africa.
The prestigious SAPOA awards are designed to recognise the importance of property development to the South African economy and community, and honour property innovators, developers, owners and built environment professionals who, through the quality of their products, have contributed significantly to enhancing the industry.
After a stringent judging criteria and facing fierce competition, WestconGroup Southern Africa building, designed by Jonathan Leibowitz from Empowered Spaces Architects, was nominated as a finalist in the Commercial Office Developments category, taking the the Best Industrial Development in South Africa award on the night.
“We are delighted to be the custodians of the building that has received the SAPOA award just six months after moving into our new offices and warehouses,” states Paul Conradie, CEO at WestconGroup Southern Africa.
“Our brief was always to create an aesthetic environment that was built for purpose, housed state of the art facilities, and would provide our staff and customers a pleasant and welcoming environment in which we could conduct business. This award stands as a testament to the fact that our architects Empowered Spaces, and in particular Jonathan Leibowitz, managed to achieve exactly this,” he adds.
The WestconGroup Southern Africa offices boast an impressive 4000-m2 warehouse and 3,500 m2 of offices located in Waterfall Estate Office Park in Midrand, providing excellent access to Johannesburg, Pretoria and the Airport, and a direct link to all major highways in Gauteng.
Designed around the desire to provide customers with the full IT distribution experience, it has a customer experience centre, extensive training facilities, including an executive training room, main training room and an auditorium. All of its training rooms are fully equipped with the best technologies and a full in-house catering service.
As the central hub and head office for the Southern Africa region, the warehouse boasts an integrated state-of- the-art security system, 189 bays of racking. Each rack’s frame is 7,8 m tall and there are over 408 bins available for the storage of small parts. Further adding to the value-added distribution experience, Westcon has also added four prep rooms, situated alongside the warehouse where partners can prep equipment on behalf of their customers.
A customer services facility adjoins the warehouse and offers direct vehicle access for customers looking for more convenient collections and drop offs, which then doubles up as the 24-hour access area for its backup store facility.
Other notable office spaces include three video conferencing rooms, a canteen, and entertainment areas, all of which are designed to drive the company’s desire to be an employer of choice in the distribution landscape.
“We are exceptionally proud of our offices and have to date received excellent feedback from our vendor partners and customers who are making extensive use of our facilities. We acknowledge everyone involved in helping us create the Westcon experience, including the developers Atterbury who helped us secure our desired location, and facilitated the management of the construction with our internal teams led by Elmien Du Toit.
“Then of course the real kudos must go to our architect Jonathan Leibowitz from Empowered Spaces Architects who is the true hero in winning the award for the Best Industrial Development in South Africa,” ends Conradie.
About WestconGroup
WestconGroup, Inc. is a value-added distributor of category-leading unified communications, network infrastructure, data centre, and security solutions with a global network of specialty resellers. The company goes to market under the Comstor and Westcon brands. WestconGroup’s teams are located in 60+ countries around the globe, create unique programs and provide exceptional support to accelerate the business of its global partners.
More information from Charlene Bowen, Tel: +27(0)11 848 9513/www.westcongroup.com
