The Diaspora University Town (DUT) 3,500 Townhouses Development Plan is the biggest capital development plan of the DUT project. The plan is for 3,500 townhouses built at a budget of Ksh 24.5 billion. About 1,500 Diaspora Kenyans are expected to be developers of one to four houses using the DUT Townhouse Investment and Development Agreement (THIDA) system. Nancy, one of the Town House developers visited from Seattle, WA and reviewed the progress.
Dan Kamau formerly of Worcester, MA who is the DUT project director received Nancy and her friend Rosemary Karanja at the Diaspora University Town site. Dan informed the visitors that so far 1,215 units of the 3,500 townhouses are allocated. The balance is 2,285 townhouses. He said once all are allocated the trust will borrow Ksh 1.2 billion, open a DUT Construction Bank account and start the development as per set plans.
Once a townhouse is completed, a long term mortgage will be established and the construction finance paid. The money paid will be deposited back to the DUT construction account. This approach will complete 3,500 with a construction budget of Ksh 22.75 billion. The approach creates a mortgage finance opportunity of Ksh 22.75 billion.
Nancy, visiting DUT as a Townhouse Developer, liked the ongoing plans. The DUT townhouse is a single/double house with 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms that can be occupied by even 10 persons in a given night.
The houses will be used by the university students and town residents who shall include the persons taking the 15,000 jobs created as follows: Diaspora University, 1,000; Hospital, 2,000 jobs; Town, 500 jobs; Design-Build, 2,000 jobs; Daktari Biotechnology Ltd Medicine and Vaccines, 500 jobs; DUT Credit Ltd finance institution, 300 jobs; and, other 300 MSMEs, over 9,200 jobs.
Dan took the visitors through the ongoing town development plans, design-build plans and MSMEs. The visitors were informed by the plan developers on the ongoing work of the plans that include: environment, townhouse building, building materials, MSMEs, water, roads construction and other plans.
Dan said, “One of the reasons that we have paved roads in towns and cities from Boston, MA to Seattle, MA is because of established town and city plans that build and maintain the roads.” Nancy agreed with this. She added that it is not just roads, but also clean water, clean environment and other plans.
Faith Mwachala talked on the MSMEs opportunities. Nancy who had opened a business in healthcare in Seattle, WA region said the next DUT investment she will be working on is one of opening an MSME at DUT.
On the town house construction, Barnabas Mwandembo, who has built several story buildings in Voi region, informed Nancy that the updated Design-Build plan will produce 20 houses in 16 weeks. The current plan is to have all the 3,500 townhouses completed in 182 weeks (3 ½ year) with a total of about 600,000 square meters of space.
Dan, explaining how this Development approach will be achieved, referenced the 250,000 Sqm Empire State Building in New York in 400 days and the 600,000 Sqm Pentagon building in Washington DC delivered in 16 months (500 days).
Ronald Mwamgombe who is working on the production plans of over 50 building materials products that will be applied in the building of the houses talked about the products that will be produced by the Ndara B 15 companies and DUT MSMEs. The visitors found him working on the townhouses staircases. He informed them that one of the products will be the staircases. Each townhouse will be fitted in with two staircases a total of 7,000 staircases that will be produced as concrete, wood and metal staircases.
The visitors also visited the environment department. Dan informed the visitors that when in Worcester, MA he was part of the U.S-WPI business conference tour to a waste management plant. He said, “The first building we shall build is a waste management warehouse that shall be ready to manage and recycle waste in accordance with the Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA).
Pagiel Mshila, the head of DUT Environment department took the visitors through a tour of the Environment nursery and later showed the trees they have already started planting in different plots. Nancy said, “Each townhouse plot should have at least one fruit tree.” Pagiel said this will be incorporated.
The visitors also toured one of the 69 parks of the town that will have trees and grass and will be used as a place to come, relax and have a barbecue. Dan also showed the visitors the survey points of the plots that are already complete. He also visited the building materials construction site. Concluding the trip Dan said, “Diaspora Kenyans can achieve this project and develop 3,500 townhouses. A single house valuation could grow past Ksh 10 million.”
Nancy said once she gets back to Seattle, WA before the end of two weeks and attends the K-NAD conference she will talk to fellow Diaspora Kenyans. “I like this project and the plans,” she concluded as she visited DUT Credit Ltd. Nancy is a shareholder investor in the DUT Credit Ltd.
