It has now been almost 4 years since Mario Baschiera and I went in search of a solution to the crime we as property owners were experiencing in Stikland Industria; an area that we have seen develop over the past 25 years into one of the most popular industrial nodes in the Western Cape. If something wasn’t done at that time, the area would have become vacant and unpopular with tenants and property owners alike.
After meeting with the CoCT we were amazed and surprised at the process that we were facing in order to establish the Stikland CID. After contacting various role players we were fortunate to have met you and your company. After our first meeting we were convinced we had met someone as passionate about your work as we are about our property investments. This led to your tender process being accepted by the board of directors and we have not looked back since. Amongst other things what has stood out were the following characteristics:
- Your services are affordable (one third of the other tenders!!)
- Your attention to detail is unquestionable
- Your contact base within the CoCT is of immense value
- Your dedication, research and implementation of the work required is 100% according to promises
- From the very beginning you and your staff have taken over almost the entire process from inception to implementation
- The monthly meetings are concise, short and to the point
- The annual public meetings and well summarised, informative and worthwhile attending
In summary, I can confirm that we as property owners are more than satisfied with the improvements we have seen in Stikland Industria over the past 13 months since the CID was started. This has been echoed on numerous occasions by almost all people with whom we deal on a daily basis in that area as my real estate company has regular contact with tenants, investors and property owners in and around Stikland. The success of the Stikland CID can mainly be attributed to the operational implementation of our planning by you and your staff at Geocentric.
Thank you for your incredible efforts over the past year and we hope this will continue into the future.
Kind regards,
Kurt Gouwsventer
Director & Chairman of Stikland CID
For Maitcid (Maitland City Improvement District) Geocentric has been a revelation.
Prior to Gene and his team taking over the management of Maitcid it was a disaster as none of the board members had experience in running a CID.
Geocentric has the experience and enthusiasm to make a real difference to any CID.
We as a board are highly impressed with Geocentric’s management style as is the city council.
Shaughn Emmenes, Board Director – Maitland City Improvement District
On behalf of the Strand SRA committee I would like to thank you for the extremely professional and efficient manner in which you assisted us in developing the Strand SRA. Without the expertise and skills of Geocentric I don’t believe we would have achieved this objective.
We thoroughly enjoyed working with you and hope that you will still be available to give advice when this is required.
Grant Goodwin, Friedman and Cohen – Strand Business Improvement District Board
I wish to comment on the past years that Geocentric have Managed the Maitland CID.
A few of us business owners in Maitland got together and tried for about 3 years to get our CID up and running. It was a very tedious task with absolutely no knowledge of how and what was involved in forming a CID, never mind running a CID. We struggled for 3 years and finally got the CID approved. We then struggled to find a competent, efficient and reliable Manager for run the CID for us.
As Business Owners, we did not have time to spend on running the CID. We found that with employing a person and then other staff to run the CID, it was very time consuming and trying on the Board Members and we were frustrated with the entire project. Things happened very slowly and we were caught up rather in the management of people, than in the management of the CID and what it was supposed to do.
Since getting Geocentric on board to manage our MAITCID, it has been run professionally, efficiently and reliably. Geocentric have all the knowledge and personal contacts to make the important things happen quickly. Personally, I have noticed a huge change in the area with regard to Maitland being a far cleaner and safer place to work in. The annoying petty crime we had 5 years ago has completely gone away in our area of Maitland.
Property values have increased and rentals have improved tremendously.
Geocentric have transformed the MAITCID into a CID that is going from strength to strength and within a couple of years, we have installed a number of cameras which are being monitored by our Security Company 24/7. The progress has happened within a short period of time and is due only to the amazing efforts and input from Geocentric, in conjunction with the people they use.
Helen Brown, Maitcid Chairman
We have been working with Geocentric since pre-inception of the Glosderry CID which was established on 3 September 2013
From commencement we can only commend Gene and Geocentric for their professionalism and attention to detail during the establishment and implementation phase of the Glosderry CID. In addition we have experienced co-operation and constructive assistance, dedication and quick reaction with “civil” tasks once Geocentric were appointed to manage our CID.
In addition, we have had compliments and now the full co-operation of “members” of our CID who were initially opposed to the implementation of the Glosderry CID.
I commend Gene and his team for the excellent work and wish them all the success in the future
Roy Kemmis-Betty – Chairman: Glosderry CID
