Café in Hazelwood
SPONSORED | In partnership with Workshop17
The restaurants, schools and padel courts were already on the doorstep. From January, Workshop17 brings the office to Fourways, then Hazelwood.
Gauteng’s suburbs are having a moment, and it is about time they shared some of the attention usually reserved for the coast. Recent housing and retail figures point to steady growth, and they go some way to explaining why more young professionals are choosing to stay put.
Their reasons are practical. Homes and rentals typically cost 20% to 30% less than in Cape Town. The province has created more jobs than the Western Cape over the past five years, and its metros pay the highest average income in the country.
Developers have noticed. More than R23.8 billion has been committed to lifestyle and mixed-use developments across just four projects. Demand keeps climbing for lifestyle hubs, where people can live close to work, shops and entertainment.
Hazelwood: from a few restaurants to a foodie hub
Nowhere is this clearer than in Hazelwood. What began as a handful of restaurants in Pretoria East is now what Time Out calls the city’s undisputed foodie hub.
The Village and The Club sit within walking distance of each other, so the streets stay busy well past office hours. The padel courts are full, the restaurants and bars draw a steady crowd, and the suburb is home to the first standalone Pantry by Marble store, which opened recently.
With Menlo Park, Brooklyn, Lynnwood and Menlyn on its borders, Hazelwood has become the place where people meet to eat, shop, play and catch up face to face.
Fourways: the estate life, and then some
Forty-odd kilometres away, in Johannesburg’s north, Fourways tells a similar story through its estates. Secure lifestyle estates come with trails, gyms, pools and clubhouses, and good schools and world-class hospitals are close by.
Fourways Mall, the biggest in the country, pulls in more than a million visitors a month. Its new R100 million precinct, The View, adds restaurants, entertainment and wellness to the mix, from Tasha’s to Clay Café and a spa, and brings The Pantry to Fourways for the first time.
Nearby, Steyn City recorded more sales than any other luxury suburb in Gauteng last year. People clearly want this way of life.
Same appeal, shorter commute
Hazelwood and Fourways are very different places, but they draw people for the same reason: so much of everyday life happens within minutes of home. Work, shopping, entertainment and a night out, without a long drive in between.
Anyone who has crawled along William Nicol Drive or the N1 at seven in the morning knows what the alternative costs: time, fuel and patience, before the working day has even started.
Think of the freelancer who has outgrown the kitchen table, the small team that doesn’t need a long office lease, or the professional who wants a proper place to meet clients without driving across the city. That is the gap Workshop17 wants to fill.
“The suburbs have the restaurants, the schools and the padel courts. What they’ve been missing is a place to do your best work without giving up the rest of your day,” says Paul Keursten, CEO of Workshop17. “We build spaces that work with life, not against it. As South Africa’s top workspace solution provider, Hazelwood and Fourways were obvious choices. Both are easy to access, which means members and their clients can get to us without it costing them the morning. Both are in lifestyle hubs, close to schools and to where people gather and live.”
Opening dates
Workshop17 Fourways opens on 1 January 2027, followed by Workshop17 Hazelwood on 1 April 2027. Both bring flexible workspace into neighbourhoods where people already choose to live, shop and spend their time.
Find out more at www.workshop17.co.za
