South Africa’s US $83m Capital Mall development in
Pretoria West has received green light. McCormick Property Development
(MPD), project
developer’s announced the reports and said they will be moving ahead with the
construction.
Construction of the mall had been previously halted
but an appeal made by the developer to overturn the decision was accepted
during a sitting of the City of Tshwane’s Municipal Appeals Tribunal (MAT) in
April.
“With direct access approved off both the N4
highway and WF Nkomo (Church) Street and situated on the planned N4/R55
interchange, the double level mall will anchor the proposed ‘Capital City’,
made up of developments forming part of Gauteng’s plan to build 30 new cities,”
stated MDP.
The development will be a mixed-use project that
will feature value retail centre, affordable housing, 150-bed private hospital,
motor dealerships, schooling, student housing and community facilities.
Additionally the development will be phased with 60,000 m2 Gross
Leasable Area (GLA) planned to open towards the end of 2021.
MPD noted that that the development’s design allows
for expansion of up to 100,00 m2 without the need for structured
parking facilities. The project comes at the time when the country’s shopping
centre demands are dropping with few malls completed since the end of 2017.
According to statistics by MSCI in 2018 on behalf
of the South African Council of Shopping Centres, the South African market had
418 m2 of the shopping centre lettable area for every 1,000 people.
South Africa, US and Canada have the highest number
of shopping centre supply relative to household consumption expenditure.
The US is rated high with 2,196 m2/1,000 per capita followed by
Canada, Australia and Norway.
However despite the demand South Africa’s current market suggests a drop down in mall completions for the period of 2018-2020 which combined with a predicted improved economic growth which may see the country’s shopping centres segment move lower and closer to the global average.
