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MALL CULTURE

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PHOTOS: GETTY/GALLO IMAGES ILLUSTRATION: DYLAN JONES
Above left: The Blue Route Mall in Cape Town. Above right: The Carlton Centre in downtown Johannesburg is one of the country’s earliest mall-style developments

is not demand, but the space needed a super-regional mall from the start “We have already shelved two develop-
to expand. Among those facing this enabled its designers to address with ments,” says Wainer. “I believe other
problem is Sandton City, which in its unique solutions. developers will also shelve projects they
43-year history has undergone three have on the table.” New developments,
extensions and grown from 50 000m2 “We incorporated a truck tunnel into he believes, have become unattractive
to 128 000m2. the receiving area where large retailers for two key reasons: inadequate returns
have their own dedicated offloading and retailers’ concern about waning
“Sandton City has a big space facilities,” Campett explains. “The consumer demand.
constraint when it comes to being receiving area is linked to the mall by
able to expand further,” emphasises service passages, hoists and lifts.” “We will get a return of 8% to 8,5% on a
Attacq’s Michael Campett. new development and pay a 10% interest
? rate,” says Wainer. “Retailers are digging
It has created a gap being exploited The longer-term their heels in on rents. Some are also
by Accelerate Property Fund, which demand for mall cutting their footprint from, say, five to
intends to pit its Fourways Mall against space is still there three malls, but with bigger stores.”
Sandton City. What the 85 000m2
Fourways Mall has lacked so far is the Looking at the potential of South On the potential for an end to the
space needed to attract many big-name Africa’s broad shopping centre current gloomy outlook, Wainer notes:
retailers. That will end in 2018 when a environment, Urban Studies takes an “We will first have to see lower interest
massive project to enlarge the mall to optimistic view. Population growth and rates and higher rentals. I don’t see that
175 000m2 is completed. increasing disposable income will drive happening any time soon.”
demand for an additional 1,5-million to
MEGA-MANAGEMENT 2-million square metres of retail space Like us on Facebook:
CHALLENGE over the next eight to 10 years, predicts Strategic Marketing
With mega-malls comes the mega- the research firm. Magazine
challenge of their management. “Each
mall is run like a separate company, But that’s a long-term horizon. As Stafford Thomas has
with their GMs taking on very much the things now stand, one thing appears worked as an editor of
role of CEO,” says Campett, who has certain in the near-term: the pace of numerous specialist
five regional mall GMs reporting to him. mall development will fall sharply in business publications
the wake of South Africa’s constrained in the UK and is a
Not least among the challenges of economic prospects. regular contributor
a mall GM is the logistics required to to the Financial Mail
cater for stock flowing into hundreds of business magazine
stores on a daily basis. It is a challenge and Business Day newspaper.
that Mall of Africa’s development as

12 strategicmarketing August–September 2016