Spoilt for choice in mall-mad Gauteng
Despite a surfeit, more centres are being developed
YOU would not think it needs them, but Gauteng is getting more shopping malls.
Already there are 7 000 000m² of retail space in the province, yet five more malls are being built.
South Africa’s most urbanised province has about 260 shopping centres that are all larger than 10 000m². Gauteng has recently experienced a shopping-centre boom and the towns of Springs and Heidelberg are also in line to open new 30 000m² and 25 000m² malls respectively.
The two malls will follow Forrest Hill City Mall, which opened in Centurion, southwest of Pretoria, in May, and Cradlestone Mall in Krugersdorp, which started trading in April.
The multibillion-rand Waterfall estate between Midrand and Johannesburg will be home to the massive 130 000m² Mall of Africa, which is under construction.
Another mall, a 70 000m² centre south of Johannesburg to be called the Mall of the South, is also in the pipeline.
Newtown Junction, a R1.3-billion mall in the heart of the city, will open later in the year. It comprises a 36 000m² shopping centre, 40 000m² offices, a hotel, gym and four levels of basement parking with 2 400 bays. It is also in the heart of the city’s theatre precinct.
Preston Gaddy, divisional director for strategic retail leasing at property services group Broll, said even though there were various new mall developments, the appetite for them was not as huge as four years ago.
The “obvious proliferation of centres” would lead to what he termed “cannibalisation” by new malls.
“The opening of new malls generally in these metropolitan areas isn’t going to create major new spend — it will just cannibalise other larger facilities in the primary and secondary catchment areas,” said Gaddy.
The owners of Southgate Mall , south of Johannesburg, were considering a major revamp, he said. The major casualties of the new developments were usually the “high streets” in smaller towns in Gauteng.
“What we are seeing in places which were high streets in small towns is that there are now more vacancies. Businesses move out and are being replaced by auto dealership and Chinese retailers.”
Johannesburg mayor Parks Tau said the mall explosion had been triggered by new residential developments. “So the provision of retail offerings such as malls is a response to demands from predominantly residential developments.”
Tau said the other factor in the growth of retail space was “the massive growth in the consumer class, in particular the black middle class”.
The mall explosion comes on the back of multimillion-rand facelifts
The casualties of new developments are usually high streets in towns
and expansions of older shopping centres such as Rosebank Mall, Hyde Park, Cresta and Sandton City.
Rosebank Mall, one of Johannesburg’s premier shopping destinations, is undergoing a R920-million facelift. The revamp follows an upgrade at the nearby The Zone @Rosebank Mall in 2010.
Many Joburgers are probably able to walk to a shopping mall as the city’s two major routes, Beyers Naude and William Nicol, have more than 20 malls and shopping centres between them — at an average of about one every 2km.
Beyers Naude Drive, which begins in Auckland Park and winds through numerous suburbs before ending in Muldersdrift, west of the city, has at least 11 malls and shopping centres between Melville and Honeydew.
William Nicol Drive, which goes through affluent suburbs such as Hyde Park, Sandhurst and Bryanston, has about 12 malls and shopping centres between the Nicol Centre in Sandton and the Jukskei River, north of the city.
The three Gauteng metros are already home to five shopping malls larger than 100 000m² in size.
Sandton City tops the scales with retail space amounting to 145 000m², followed by Tshwane’s Menlyn Mall at 119 000m², then Eastgate, Centurion Mall and Westgate.