Downtown Urban Regeneration_Jonny Friedman_City Opportunity Fund_South Africa

Welcome to episode 47 of the Green & Healthy Places podcast in which we discuss the themes of sustainability, wellbeing and community in real estate today.

I’m your host, Matt Morley, Founder of Biofilico Healthy Buildings, and today I’m in Durban, South Africa talking to Jonny Friedman, Executive Chairman of the newly launched City Opportunity Fund.

In the 1980s and 90s Jonny invested in over 100 buildings in the Brighton area in the UK and another 20 buildings in Hoxton and Shoreditch in London, playing an instrumental role in the urban regeneration of both places.

Today he leads a team of over 120 people under the Urban Lime developments name focused primarily on Cape Town and Durban in South Africa. He has over R2 billion invested in real estate in Cape Town and Durban so far.

We discuss topics such as activations in the public realm, tactical urbanism, apartheid’s influence on urban geography in downtown areas in South Africa, what he calls ‘catalytic developments’ and the incremental gains from creating momentum in placemaking strategies, public-private partnerships in changing the identity of entire urban districts, as well as ESG and sustainability in the South African context.

Jonny was one of the very first people I ever worked for back in the early 2000s, I’ve followed his rise with keen interest over the past two decades and the City Opportunity Fund looks set to make a massive impact on the lives of those impacted by social and affordable housing in Cape Town and Durban, so, here he is, Mr Jonny Friedman.

GUEST  / JONNY FRIEDMAN

• https://urbanlime.co.za/
• https://fourthspace.co.za
• https://www.cityopportunity.co.za/

HOST / MATT MORLEY

• https://biofilico.com/ 
• https://biofit.io/
• https://www.mattmorley.net/