If you build it, they will come. This is a line widely attributed to Kevin Costner’s character in the 1989 fantasy film Field of Dreams.

For the Sandton district of Johannesburg, South Africa, fantasy became a reality when a monumental shopping complex was built in the middle of nowhere, and attracted business in droves when it opened.

Visitors to Sandton, the upmarket business district North of Johannesburg, are always amazed at its unique transformation.

The near perfect planning with infrastructure that can only be the envy of the rest of Africa makes Sandton the first choice for a group of travellers that has come to be known as business tourists.

The 300,000 inhabitants of the greater Sandton area include some of the world’s top business executives.

Some of these include a number of global ultra high net worth individuals. This is not surprising considering that South Africa leads in the number of dollar billionaires on the continent.

Then there are the businesses. Shopping enthusiasts will be spoilt for choice as some of the well-known luxury brands now call Sandton their home.

Prada, Loius Vuitton, Giorgio Armani and Gucci – Sandton has them all. With over10,000 such brands here, it is little wonder that Sandton has earned itself the enviable tag as “Africa’s richest square mile”.

I have been to Sandton several times and on each occasion, I get to discover a hitherto hidden gem waiting to be unfurled.

History

On the sidelines of the just concluded Philips Innovation Experience 2015, I took some time to dig up the history of an area that has come to exemplify the way our towns ought to be planned.

At the turn of the last century, urban centres in Africa cropped up in the middle of nowhere. Nairobi was a soggy quagmire where Maasai herdsmen visited on a regular basis to water their livestock. The former railway depot is now an international city.

Kampala was a bushy, hilly outpost where, as the name implies, impalas found refuge.

In South Africa, a number of towns sprung up after gold was discovered in the late 19th century.

Sandton is no different. A little over 50 years ago, it was no more than a sandy horse trail and grassy plains.

The farming community was known to run around in horses hence the “mink and manure” tag of yester-years.

In 1969, Johannesburg Town Council adopted a resolution to create a municipality called Sandton, in a move to ease the pressure on downtown Johannesburg whose urban decay was already creating what came to be known as the “white flight”.

Sandton was created by amalgamating three main farms, all bearing the suffix “fontein”, meaning spring or fountain.

There was the Zandfontein or sandy fountain, Driefontein or three fountains and Rietfontein or fountain of reeds.

As the city government moved to approve the construction of Sandton City Mall,  residents were skeptical about the construction of a monumental shopping complex in the middle of nowhere.

The success of the complex in a semi-rural setting was in doubt.

In September 1973, Sandton City, a development by Rapp and Maister, opened its doors, leading to mass business exodus from central Johannesburg.

Landmarks

Today, Sandton City, with its pyramid-shaped apex and the nearby Michelangelo Towers, are the most conspicuous landmarks in Sandton and can be termed as Africa’s Manhattan.

Apart from the hundreds of designer shops in Sandton, the area is home to international corporates, five-star hotels as well as the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

The Sandton Convention Centre is the largest on the continent and has been the venue of both local and international conferences, including the ANC victory party two decades ago.

The nearby Nelson Mandela Square at the centre of Sandton is a must visit for a first-timer to Sandton.

The main attraction here is the six-metre bronze statue of Nelson Mandela.

The 2.5 tonne edifice is the work of Kobus Hattingh and Jcob Maponyane and was created to reflect the events that led to the creation of the rainbow nation.

Despite the enormous progress, Sandton will be home to the tallest structure on the continent, an 80-storey office tower that will push the entire lettable area to a massive 158,000 square metres.

Well, walking on one of its famous thoroughfares, Rivonia Street, it is hard to imagine that Sandton was a mere race track a little over half a century ago. As word on the street has it, Johannesburg’s loss has been Sandton’s gain.