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Apr 06, 2006:
EARTHWORKS at the long-awaited Maponya Mall site in Soweto have started with the developers hoping to get construction of the superstructure under way in the next four weeks.
The R500m mall, which will have just less than 60000m˛ of space, is being developed in a partnership between Zenprop Property Holdings, Soweto businessman Richard Maponya’s Maponya Group, and a bank yet to be named.
Zenprop joint CEO Rodney Weinstein says they are still waiting for “final plan approvals” from the City of Johannesburg, which were expected “any day”.
He says all the major national retailers have decided to take space in the mall, and these include Woolworths, Edgars, Pick ’n Pay, Truworths, the Foschini Group and Mr Price.
“In excess of 75% (of retail space) has been taken up by tenants and there is more than enough demand to fill the mall.”
He says if everything goes according to plan, the mall will open in September or October next year.
Chichi Maponya, daughter of Richard and a director of the Maponya Group, says this development is “long overdue”.
“Soweto is a market that has just been waiting. It hasn’t many malls, and the tendency in the past was to build on the edge of Soweto.
“Now we are bringing a shopping centre right to residents’ doorstep.” This will be the third shopping centre built in Soweto in the past two years.
Jabulani Mall is currently under construction, and is due for completion in November, while the Protea Gardens shopping centre has already been built.
Weinstein and Richard Maponya first announced they would be developing a mall in July last year,
A study commissioned by the City of Johannesburg’s economic development unit in 2003 put the combined annual buying power of Sowetans at more than R10,5bn, with R4,3bn of that available for consumer spending.
