Baywest to open by mid-May

Strikes cause month-long delay at megamall of R2bn

THE much-anticipated R2-billion Baywest Mall is set to open its doors by mid-May – almost a month later than initially expected. Speaking at an SA Council of Shopping Centres event at the Paragon in Newton Park yesterday, Baywest managing director Gavin Blows said the date was moved to May to accommodate all the tenants and enable management to be prepared for the influx of shoppers expected during the grand opening phase of the new mega-sized mall. “We want to be ready and have everything completed – from the iceskating rink at the Fun Factory to the new Imax cinema, which will be one of eight Ster Kinekor cinemas,” Blows said.

The opening date was originally set for this month. However, Blows said civils and steel industry strikes affected construction of the 90 000m2 mall.

This caused the opening to be postponed until April.

Now shoppers will have to wait another month for the mall – with 85% of the 250 tenants national companies – to open. A total of 2 500 permanent jobs will be created at the mall, while more than 3 000 direct jobs were created during the construction stage.

Blows said the high cost of doing business in Port Elizabeth, coupled with unreliable electricity supply through Eskom, could affect growth and further investments in the city.

“We should not be punished . . . for bringing in employment and bringing in spend.”

Blows said the rates in Port Elizabeth were double those at other malls managed by one of the developers, Abacus Asset Management, in Somerset West, Klerksdorp and Johannesburg. It cost twice what it costs in Durban, Cape Town and Bloemfontein to do a 800KVA connection to the Port Elizabeth electricity grid.

He called on other retailers to lobby the city to make doing business cheaper.

Walmer Park shopping centre portfolio manager Leonie Scheepers welcomed Baywest to the retailing family in the Bay and agreed with Blows that the city’s rates were too high.

An extra R9-million will be spent on generators to enable the Baywest Mall to stay open during times of load-shedding, and the company is investigating setting up a biomass waste recycling facility at the mall where fast-food waste could produce methane on site to help generate electricity during blackouts.

Blows said the developers, Abacus Asset Management and the Billion Group, had decided to build the regional mall in Port Elizabeth because the city was a star performer in terms of economic growth, compared with the rest of the Eastern Cape, with an expect- ed five-year GDP growth of 6.75%. He said the developers had found that people travelled up to two hours to the city to do their shopping.

He also said it was an urban legend that people would not drive 10 minutes further to visit the mall, since many of the shopping centres in the city were in congested traffic areas.

By late April, phase one of the road infrastructure upgrade around the mall would be complete, linking Walker Drive with Baywest Mall and the on- and off-ramps of the N2 freeway. Phase two, the bridge over the N2 connecting Walker Drive with Bridgemeade and Rowallan Park at Old Cape Road, would be completed by September.

A residential section, Baywest City, where 250 homes will be for sale for between R800 000 and R1.5-million, will be launched by the end of the year.

A lifestyle centre with Virgin as anchor tenant and a government office park, as well as an Apple Express railway station are among planned developments at Baywest City.

“We have a long-term vision with this development. It will take at least 15 years to complete,” Blows said.