WINDHOEK – The Grove Mall is expected to open its doors officially in October next year and will boast many tenant firms that will be represented for the first time in Namibia, according to Charles Fourie of Safland Property Group Namibia.
The Grove Mall of Namibia forms part of the Hilltop Estate Development, which is 220 000 square metres in total. In 2009 the City of Windhoek awarded the tender to develop the Kleine Kuppe area to Demushuwa Property Developers. Demushuwa expects the entire Hilltop Estate Development to be completed in 2018. Yesterday a media conference was held to report on the progress and latest developments at the Grove Mall. Fourie said a lot of public interest exists in the mall that will be a 54 000 square metre, three-level shopping mall with three parking levels. To date, anchor tenants that have signed lease agreements with the mall are Game, Checkers, Edgars, Spar and Ster Kinekor. Other tenants of note include Sportsman’s Warehouse, Outdoor Warehouse (forming part of Sportsman’s Warehouse), Cotton On Group, Woolworths, Truworths, the Foshini Group, Mr Price Group, Dischem, Clicks, Toys ‘R’ Us, Incredible Connection, MTC, News Café, Wimpy, and Coricraft. The Namibian retailers, amongst others, include Otto Muir, Paulo’s, OTB and Boardriders.
“Approximately 25 percent of the tenants will be represented for the first time in Namibia. This number is likely to increase as we are currently in negotiations with a number of exciting brands to take up space in the mall,” said Fourie. According to him 90 percent of the gross lettable area has been let and allocated, which is equal to approximately 49 000 square metres of the available space. A few of the first time tenants in Namibia include Aca Joe, Jenny Button, Hilton Weiner, Vertigo, Urban, Mango, 9West, Forever New, Guess, Aldo, Frazers, Poetry, Old Khaki, Vida E, Wakaberry’s, Smart Store, Bt Games, Scoin, Outdoor Warehouse, Cotton On Group, Discem, Toys ‘R’ Us, News Café, and Coricraft.
The Grove Mall will feature the first real food court in Namibia with restaurants spilling over to the outside seating where a large open court will entice children of all ages with a unique water feature. Provision will be made for disabled parking, as well as special mommy-assist parking bays for parents with children. “All parking bays at the mall will be 20cm wider than most parking bays currently available at existing shopping centres in Namibia, which provides ease of access and convenience,” according to Fourie. In 2011 the bulk earthworks for the mall and the construction of the new irrigation reservoir for the City of Windhoek were completed, with the actual construction headed up by Murray and Roberts Namibia that started on November 01, 2012.
To date a total investment of approximately N$400 million has been made and it is expected that the total eventual investment will total approximately N$1.1 billion. Approximately 700 jobs are being created during the construction phase. “We further expect that between 1500 and 1800 permanent jobs will be created once the mall opens next year,” Fourie revealed.
By Staff Reporter