Retail in the fast lane
Traditional shopping centres were built for convenience but Panthera Group’s CEO is changing all that by creating a destination where consumers will choose to linger longer to take in a wide array of experiences
FROM Mozambique to Mermaid, the future of the mall is here. On a site sandwiched between the legendary Pacific Fair and local favourite Q Super Centre, it may not seem the ideal position to pitch yet another shopping centre – but developer Chakyl Camal says that’s why it’s the perfect location for a retail revolution.
And the CEO of Panthera Group knows exactly what it takes to be a champion fighter.
Born in a war-torn African country, this 32-year-old vowed to become an elite-level swimmer, using his eventual competitor’s ticket to the Olympics as an opportunity to network and leverage himself into what he says is the toughest deal he’s ever had to negotiate – migrating to Australia.
Entering the country with just a few hundred dollars to his name, Chakyl is now the owner of not only a new home on the Gold Coast, but a new project – developing the $200m The Lanes Retail Resort at Mermaid Waters.
And while Chakyl might have come from humble beginnings, he is anything but when it comes to his expectations for this new shopping precinct.
“Pacific Fair is great but it’s yesterday’s mall … this is tomorrow’s,” says Chakyl, who formed Panthera Group with his best mate Mario
Evangelo six years ago.
“Traditional shopping centres were built for the convenience of consumers, people get in and get out, they are built for ease.
“What we are building is for depth and quality, it’s a destination where people will choose to linger longer.
“This will be somewhere where you can meet for a beautiful breakfast or dine until midnight. This will be a wellness and beauty precinct, we will have float tanks, a pool, cabanas, snow rooms.
“These are things that the modern consumer prioritised but that traditional shopping centres just can’t service.
“Not only will we offer that, but we will be offering the best of the best.”
Fielding enormous interest from prospective tenants, Chakyl says there is one element of retail he won’t be focusing on.
He says while there will still be an element of fashion on offer, it’s no longer where landlords should be focusing.
“People can shop online and the fact is that the margins in fashion are about 15 to 20 per cent. It’s a tough industry, which makes it tough to focus on those tenants,” says Chakyl, who bought The Lanes retail site for $45.8m from Sunland Group.
“Whereas when you look at beauty and wellness, you’re talking margins of 600 per cent.
“There’s a reason that cosmetic specialists live in Beverly Hills and not tailors.”
Completion of The Lanes is expected by the end of 2024 and will include Europeanstyle laneways of cafes, restaurants, bars, as well as beauty, health and wellbeing venues and a fresh-food market hall.
A large amphitheatre, fronted by a pavilion, will also enable The Lakes community and visitors to chill by the lake.
It’s a poetic return to water for Chakyl, who turned to swimming as an outlet when he was growing up in Mozambique.
While his family was middle- class,
he says opportunities were scarce no matter your socio-economic status. Perhaps that’s why Chakyl has built an incredible career by seizing every chance he’s afforded.
“I grew up in a war-torn country that’s been affected by a lot of misfortune. There’s a dire lack of infrastructure, there’s underdevelopment and poor education for the masses.
“I was lucky enough to be in the middle class and could at least access some facilities.
“There was nothing for soccer, which I loved, but my parents joined the marine club which had a pool and a swimming coach and I jumped in.
“My mother knew I needed something. I had so much energy I needed to burn – otherwise I was a little bit mischievous.
“I really fell in love with swimming because it was a chance to get away from what was outside. Underwater is so quiet and calm, it’s free of corruption and pollution.
“It was such a blessing and built my character.”
At the age of 14, Chakyl chased his sporting opportunity by moving to South Africa with a group of other teens, where they lived together in a small apartment.
As the others eventually dropped out of swimming, Chakyl doubled down, enrolling in the sporting academy and training for a further three years until he won the chance to represent Mozambique at the Beijing Olympics at age 18.
“I was hungry and ambitious and driven,” he says.
“I had sacrificed a lot to get there, and I was going to get everything I could out of the opportunity.
“I used the reputation I built at that Olympics to meet people, make connections and network my way to another opportunity.
“Ultimately, I was sponsored by the Mozambique International Bank, the Mozambique Ministry of Education and the International College of Management in Sydney.
“But that took nine months of hard work, I doorknocked more than 150 companies to get just one of those sponsorships.
“But I made it, and it was the happiest day of my life when I was able to use those sponsorships to enter Australia.
“Of all the deals I have brokered, that was the toughest. I had to create an inexistent pathway into Australia, one of the most difficult countries to migrate to.
“I’m still so proud and so grateful that it happened.”
But it was no easy feat to start afloat in his new country.
As well as studying full-time for his business property degree, Chakyl worked as a landscaper at the college for up to six hours a day, along with swim training for another five hours.
“That was four years of pure exhaustion. I’m amazed I made it to the London Olympics, but I did.
“At the time I was receiving $1250 per month from my scholarships and my education was free for the first year. But I paid $50,000 per year for the rest of it.
“But I did it all with pleasure. I never begrudged a drop of sweat or a minute of study, I knew when I got on that aeroplane to Australia that I was in a time-travel machine.
“I was travelling to a place that Mozambique will not reach for who knows how long.
“These two countries have the same population, but Mozambique has just one per cent of the economy of Australia.
“I knew that every effort I put into my life here could be scaled up beyond anything imagined in my home country.
“I was hungry and I was grateful.”
After finishing both his degree and his competitive swimming career, Chakyl began his career as a developer, working with shopping centres in NSW.
He then decided to learn more about retail operations, running more than 200 IGA supermarkets across NSW and the ACT.
In 2015, alongside Mario Evangelo, he founded Panthera Group, whose first Gold Coast project is The Lanes.
“I wanted to take my time to understand retail from a developer’s and a tenant’s perspective. I want to be a great landlord,” he says.
“I think that’s part of the reason we’re getting a lot of interest from tenants for The Lanes. Not only is it a great retail mix but I believe we have earned a good reputation. I take nothing for granted.
“But I think a big part of it is also just the Gold Coast itself. It’s an incredible city that is still really flourishing as a place of growth.
“I can’t wait to start the next phase of my life as a resident there.”
Then, there is the prospect of the 2032 Olympic Games in southeast Queensland and the dynamic opportunities that will bring to our city.
For Chakyl, he is sure to take to that like a Mozambican fish to water.
Underwater is so quiet and calm, it’s free of corruption and pollution ...