McCormick launch new shopping mall in South Africa this week – with even more planned for 2023

Following a string of new malls launching in South Africa over the last two months, property developers McCormick have one final shopping destination opening its doors in 2022 – and a host of new developments planned for 2023.

The group’s latest development – the 7,000 square metre Bizana Walk shopping centre – is expected to open its doors in the Eastern Cape this week, from Thursday, 1 December.

The mall is the latest in the trend of formal retail centres coming to more remote parts of the country and will feature tenants like Boxer, Exact, Markham, TotalSports and Clicks.

Development on the project broke ground in January 2022.

The mall is one of the smaller developments in McCormick’s portfolio, but follows a host of bigger developments that have been completed this year.

The group is part of the Exemplar REITail group, which has seen great success from its rural and township shopping mall build programme. Exemplar CEO, Jason McCormick, told  Business Day earlier in November that rural retail has been the group’s focus for four decades, and it has certainly reaped the rewards from this.

McCormick said that demand in the sector is growing, which can be seen in the large number of retail outlets opening in the last two months, as well as the vast number of projects in the pipeline for 2023 and beyond.

“Unlike urban malls, where you would have a specific mall size in any given location, in these markets, there is no ideal size. This sector cannot be led by cookie-cutter, copy-and-paste models. Each location, each community and each offering need to be carefully analysed to ensure it is right-sized and appropriately developed to speak to the very specific market and community needs of that area,” he said.

On top of serving the communities these retail centres are developed in, McCormick said that the projects also boost the economies and job markets, driving growth in the country.

Four new malls opened their doors at the end of October, all within the space of a few days, specifically targeting rural and remote communities where demand for large retail environments is growing.

Urban centres are not out of the loop, however, with large malls still being built in the country’s big cities.

According to McCormick Property’s pipeline, after closing out the year with Bizana Walk, there are at least five projects planned for 2024, including a massive 60,000-square-metre development in Pretoria.

 In 2024, five more projects are in the pipeline, with four more developments confirmed for 2025 and beyond.

These are the planned projects and their sizes:

2022

• Bizana Walk, Eastern Cape – 6,800 sqm

2023

• Capital Mall, Gauteng – 60,000 sqm
• Tshakhuma Corner, Limpopo – 10,300 sqm
• Vuwani Mall, Limpopo – 13,500 sqm
• Tshakhuma Corner, Limpopo – 11,500 sqm
• Zeerust Mall, North West – 16,200 sqm

2024

• Mehlareng Mall, Limpopo – 10,000 sqm
• Leeuwfontein Crossing, Limpopo – 10,000 sqm
• Mbashe LG Mall, Eastern Cape – 21,800 sqm
• Dan City Mall, Limpopo – 29,450 sqm

Beyond

• Dobson Place, Gauteng – 22,400 sqm
• Theku Plaza Phase 2, KZN – 7,750 sqm
• Leratong City Mall, Gauteng – 33,500 sqm
• Bungeni Mall, Limpopo – 16,800 sqm

BusinessTech