Development: World Trade Center, Abuja (Updated)

• Name: World Trade Center, Abuja (WTC)
• Location: Constitution Avenue, Central Business District, Abuja
• Use: Office, Residential, Retail, Hospitality
• Developer: Churchgate Group

The World Trade Center in Abuja is a mixed use project which will include retail, residential, office and hospitality elements developed in an effort to create a vibrant cityscape in the country’s capital. It will comprise 6 residential and office towers ranging from 18 – 23 floors, a large modern shopping center called the Capital Mall and a high rise mixed use tower, (said to go up to 45 floors) with leisure and hospitality elements.

The first phase, which should be complete before Q2 2015 will include 1 office and 1 residential tower. Tower One Residences will have 1-6 bedroom luxury apartments, duplexes and penthouses, with sizes ranging from 130sqm to 521sqm. Each apartment will come with good views of Abuja’s Central Business District on private balconies as well as typical amenities found in luxury residences.

1 World Trade Center will provide over 20,000sqm of flexible ‘AAA Grade’ office space for corporate occupiers. The glass facade on the building will be thermally efficient and the building aims to offer adequate parking, however the amount of parking bays provided has not been specified.

Interest in the development of large scale mixed use real estate projects has risen steadily in Abuja, with 2 similar but larger projects already in the pipeline in this region. These include a $2.7bn mixed use development also located in the Central Business District of Abuja and the $181bn Centenary City, which has an out of town location (near Kuje), closer to Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport. Both developments intend to provide 5-Star Hotels, shopping malls, office spaces, residential units, recreational facilities and more.

While a report in 2013 by Rencap explained that Abuja had the highest per capita income in the country at $4,000, it is difficult to imagine that the population volumes to drive the success for each of these developments can be found in Abuja’s 3.3m people. Nonetheless, the push from the private sector and support from the government in the development of commercial hubs outside Lagos is commendable.

The WTC Abuja project is The Churchgate group’s 2nd investment in Abuja, their first being the Churchgate Tower, which is opposite the WTC development. However, they have been involved in the Lagos’ real estate space for over a decade with previous commercial investments including Churchgate Tower 1 and 2 in Victoria Island.

See this image below demonstrating the progress of the World Trade Center Development from 2011 up until early 2014.