The backstory of Jonny Friedman's quest to regenerate South Africa's cities

Meet the man behind regeneration success stories in London, Cape Town and Durban

Friedman's accomplishments are nothing short of extraordinary: from beginning his professional career in London's East End, where he was instrumental in the redevelopment of Hoxton, Shoreditch, Clerkenwell, and Whitechapel, to founding Urban Lime, an urban regeneration real-estate company. He has been at the forefront of the regeneration of inner-city neighbourhoods and buildings for over 30 years, bringing life back to places in South Africa such as Bree Street in Cape Town and Florida Road in Durban, as well as internationally in Brighton on England's south coast in the mid-1990s.

The Early Years

Jonny Friedman, 55, was raised in London and is the son of a paediatrician and a teacher, but his life has been shaped by South Africa. During his childhood in the UK, Jonny and his family would visit South Africa, where his parents lived before moving to the UK during Apartheid. As a nine-year-old, he recalls noticing the ugly racial undercurrents reflected in the city's design, such as deserted streets, high-security walls, and pristine but deserted beaches. Jonny studied politics and graduated with an MBA from Manchester University at the Alliance Manchester Business School.

Early Career

He started his career working at a brokerage that sourced commercial property loans in the UK. Growing up in London Jonny spent his youth taking in and loving the excitement of the city.

Travelling widely as a young adult he noticed how and why neighbourhoods changed, Jonny explains “I grew up at a time of great economic political, cultural and technological change and I was fascinated by how this impacted on cities”

On these travels, he was inspired by warehouse conversions in New York. After the 1990 financial crash, Friedman went solo and bought a ￡ 1.5-million building in London’s East End for ￡155 000 which he still owns.

As a pioneer in the 1900s, he was instrumental in and at the forefront of urban regeneration, having invested in the East End of London of Hoxton, Shoreditch, Clerkenwell and Whitechapel; and led the resurgence of Brighton by working on 100 buildings in the 1990s. This was before the term “urban regeneration’ was even coined.

Jonny explains, “globalisation and access to global capital were transforming the world. A global marketplace and mass migration towards cities were hugely disruptive and left many traditional industries behind. The impact on many communities and neighbourhoods was huge.”

Urban regeneration & South Africa

Jonny returned to South Africa in the early 2000s and began thinking about how to invest in its inner cities and neighbourhoods. He saw capital and human flight to the suburbs as an aberration and a trend that would reverse and normalise in all major cities in the future.

With sights set on the potential opportunities in South African cities, Jonny moved his family and Urban Lime to South Africa. His decision to move was based on his strong belief that South African cities are key to changing the economy of the country by creating an environment where businesses, entrepreneurs, and modern living can thrive. Jonny explains that “I realised that large-scale urban regeneration in South Africa offered the potential to significantly add value to the city”.

He has since overseen the investment of R2 billion in the inner-city areas of Cape Town and Durban.

In the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, he set out to transform Bree Street into a cool and vibrant destination akin to London's high streets. To kickstart the regeneration momentum, Urban Lime opened the first bar on Bree Street.

In 2014, Jonny looked further afield by conducting a comprehensive study of Durban and identifying sixteen inner-city neighbourhoods with opportunities. To date, they have only invested in four precincts: Florida Road, the Professional Quarter in the Central Business District, the Rivertown Precinct close to the ICC, and the Pixley Central, which consists of Pioneer Place and 320 Pixley.

He explains, “There is an enormous amount of work that needs to be done in Durban, but when I look out of my window I see a city with world-class views, a great climate and prices that are materially out of tune with cities elsewhere in the world. Walking on the streets I see a cosmopolitan mix of people in the high street, people shopping and doing brisk business. There is still a requirement to think about how to use the space and bring more people into the city to live”.

His assessment was that, while Johannesburg had the business, and Cape Town had beauty and tourism, Durban had both.

His efforts in Durban have not gone unnoticed, as the eThekwini Municipality has nominated Urban Lime for a United Nations Award under his leadership. Friedman is still smitten with Durban, where he lives with his family. Three of his five children attend school in South Africa.

Social impact and building South Africa’s democracy

Friedman’s passion for regenerating South African cities does not stop at the door of his properties.

In 2020, in the weeks prior to the lockdown, Friedman worked with the eThekwini Municipality and its Task Team for the Homeless, FNB and NGOs to refurbish an existing building to become the first Women and Children’s Shelter. The 3-storey building, previously known as the Strollers building, which has 216 beds is a safe, supportive, temporary refuge for women and women with children that are homeless. Studies have shown that if women and young girls have access to safe places, such as the Strollers Shelter, the multiple risks they will face on the street can be greatly reduced.

During the lockdown period, Friedman and Urban Lime also offered support to the Belhaven Harm Reduction Centre, providing opioid substitution therapy for those suffering from heroin addiction.

Friedmans has also been involved in numerous other social initiatives, for example, the pop-up park in Church Square to raise awareness around the water crisis in Cape Town and Paper Money, in partnership with Independent Media which provides income and dignity to the homeless by selling The Mercury and sister paper, the Daily News, at intersections around Durban.

The pandemic and post-pandemic era

Yet how can these forms of transformation and regeneration be used as a tool for bringing about long-term and impactful change in our South African cities? Jonny explains that is it "our experiences and thoughts around experiential real estate and regeneration, as well as understanding how one creates proper upliftment in these communities that have really not moved very far in the last 20 or so years since apartheid ended in 1994."

“I don't really consider myself a developer but more as someone who works in placemaking, more around reinvention, as reinventors of space, not developers of space.”

Friedman’s watchword has always been democratisation and his approach to people-centric spaces. “How does it feel? Very critical. What's the use? How does it interact with everything else we do? How does it fit in?”

As part of the democratisation of space, Friedman starts with who and what is already there: “A very important part of this is thinking deeply and widely about who's already there, what's there already, in terms of community, neighbourhood, and the various parties living or working there, and also what the history is, what the culture is, and how to really take what is there and build upon that. How to make that relevant and better and repurposed in such a way that it works for the people that are there ready so that it starts to develop interest and excitement for others to come and join in.”

Friedman has also not shied away from promoting big and bold ideas. His 2019 study visit to South American cities left him inspired with some exciting ideas to transform Durban, making it a better place to live, work and visit while at the same time creating employment opportunities.

One of these is a ‘blue-sky’ proposal that will see an urban cable car transportation network connecting The Point, South Beach, and Florida Road. “I visited 11 different South American cities, from Bogota to Lima to Buenos Aires, and toured a number of large and small urban regeneration projects and movements in each city.”

His work also includes the Walkable and Connected Durban strategy, developed in collaboration with urbanism practice and consultancy Our Future Cities, which seeks to create a safe, vibrant, and walkable ring connecting the entire Inner City and its many destinations.

“In times of crisis, it is important to make very quick and well-directed decisions, adapt and be aware of the changing trends.”

According to Jonny, it is now vital to look past the bricks-and-mortar but rather engages more widely. “Urban Lime looks very carefully not only at the buildings but the entire ecosystem of the area - the city, the neighbourhood, as well as the people who live, work, and play there. What are their needs, their aspirations, and what do they want?”

Jonny Friedman, a father of five, a passionate urbanist and city regeneration specialist from South Africa, and CEO of Urban Lime, has been a leading global thinker in this space for over 30 years. Friedman has been an integral voice for appropriate and catalytic inner-city urban regeneration, both nationally and internationally.

Come and watch Jonny Friedman speak with Lorenzo Davids next week the 28th of February on why and how we should rethink South Africa Cities in the heart of Church Square at Speakers Corner. Register here.