eThekwini Film City
On the former Natal Command site at the north end of the Golden Mile, twenty one hectares are set aside for a film, tourism and leisure city like nothing attempted in South Africa before. This is the plan.
development value for the film city
on the former Natal Command site, Durban Golden Mile
precincts, from sound stages to the beachfront
of South African production behind it
The vision
It is Anant Singh's long held dream to make Durban a significant player in the film industry. He identified the Natal Command site, beside the Suncoast Casino and within sight of Moses Mabhida Stadium and the Durban International Convention Centre, as the ideal home for world class film studios, set within a public destination of hotels, residences, markets and leisure.
The strategy is to build something iconic, a benchmark for future mega projects and a new economic engine for the city. It is conceived as a holistic concept rather than an architectural one: a sustainable, heavily landscaped precinct that drives tourism and job creation, restores a distressed stretch of the beachfront, and gives the province a live, work and play district built around the glamour of the movies.
The master plan
SCHEMATIC SITE PLAN · HOVER OR TAP A PRECINCT
The beachfront
The beachfront
A hotel and residential beachfront zone on the Golden Mile, with the Ocean Drive Hotel, beachfront apartments and the Ocean Park Residences. The historic Natal Command building is retained and given a new life, anchoring a promenade of cafes, pools and public space along the sea.
The commercial precinct
The working heart of the city: themed retail, restaurants and boutique offices built for the film and entertainment industry, and the home of the KZN Film School and the KZN Film Council. A place where the business of cinema and the public meet.
The civic heart
Open ground for events and festivals, with a sculpture garden at its centre. The space where the city gathers, and where Durban's film calendar finds a permanent home on the beachfront.
The cultural mile
African, Indian, Chinese and organic markets set around a market lake, alongside artists' studios and galleries. A reflection of the cultural diversity of the city, built into the plan rather than added to it.
The production precinct
The reason the city exists: sound stages, workshops and a back lot built to world standards, with a TV theatre, a Walk of Fame and the Museum of South African Cinema. The infrastructure that lets the world's productions come to Durban, and South Africa's own stories grow at home.
The case
Film has been identified as a strategic industry by the South African government, already contributing billions to the economy. The master plan is designed to be phased to the economic climate, with job creation focused on opportunities for historically disadvantaged individuals, the uplift of the surrounding environment, and the creation of the first true entertainment destination in the country.
Since the 1980s, a film and television economy has helped draw more than seven million visitors a year and support well over ten thousand jobs through tourism alone.
Now one of the largest film-making cities in the United States, with television production generating billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs, according to the Motion Picture Association.
Cape Town Film Studios, developed and chaired by Anant Singh, founder and CEO of Videovision Entertainment, proved the model at home, attracting large budget productions to the country.
Now
The film city has been fought for across decades, through approvals, objections and the long work of assembling the land and the will. The vision set out here is the plan as it has been drawn, and it continues to evolve as it moves forward.
Today it is closer than it has ever been. The City of eThekwini has backed the project, and the President of South Africa has publicly called for it to be built. The next chapter of the group is not only a slate of films, it is a place.
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