{"id":779245,"date":"2024-07-03T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=779245"},"modified":"2024-07-03T14:17:57","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T12:17:57","slug":"south-africas-largest-shopping-mall-in-big-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/property\/779245\/south-africas-largest-shopping-mall-in-big-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s largest shopping mall in big battle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fourways Mall has progressed in its aggressive campaign to attract new shops and clients and improve its strained financial position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourways Mall is South Africa\u2019s largest shopping centre with a gross lettable area (GLA) of 178,000 square meters and 350 stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mall, located in the Fourways area in Johannesburg, underwent a comprehensive redevelopment in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The expansion included the development of two large flyovers going into the underground parking, off William Nicol Drive and Witkoppen Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The redevelopment also linked Fourways Mall to banking facilities, a Food Lover\u2019s Market, a large West Pack Lifestyle store and an XXL Petworld, as well as 8,000 parking bays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mall boasts the biggest retail brands, including H&M, Food Lovers Market, Westpack, XXl Pet World, Checkers, Mr Price Home, Woolworths, Foschini, and Edgars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other prominent stores include Game, Pick n Pay, Dis-Chem Clicks, and Leroy Merlin, making it South Africa\u2019s largest super regional mall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also offers family entertainment from The Fun Company, Adventure Golf, Bounce Free Jumping arena, Extreme Go-Karting, and Ster-Kinekor cinemas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, despite the large redevelopment investment, it has struggled to attract enough foot traffic and stores to prosper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mall\u2019s net rent per square meter has declined from R298 in 2020 to R262 in 2023, which puts pressure on the landlord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourways Mall\u2019s fair value declined significantly over the last three years, which illustrates the challenges its largest shareholder, Accelerate Property Fund, faces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has reached such drastic measures that Accelerate director Michael Georgiou defaulted on a loan to Investec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investec acquired Georgiou\u2019s shares, linked to a lending transaction, and now owns 8% of Accelerate Property Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investec did not want to buy 8% of Accelerate Property Fund. It was forced to because Georgiou could most likely not repay the loan where the shares were used as collateral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protea Capital Management founder and CEO Jean Pierre Verster said Investec\u2019s response will be important to track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt will be interesting to see whether Investec will become an activist shareholder to find a block buyer for the shares,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourways Mall turnaround plan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Two shopping mall heavyweights, Flanagan & Gerard and the Moolman Group, spearhead efforts to transform Fourways Mall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have recently unveiled their strategy to make Fourways Mall the preferred shopping destination in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The high-level plan is to offer a mix of retail options within a convenient, safe, and engaging environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They want to ensure that Fourways Mall is top of mind as the best shopping destination for those who reside in our primary and secondary trade areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A more detailed strategy includes improving signage to make it easier for people to navigate to the mall and find parking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also wants to fill the numerous empty shops with new tenants. This will improve Fourways Mall\u2019s appeal and increase rental income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another important investment is offering all tenants full backup power solutions to improve trading amidst load-shedding. It is also exploring energy alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The turnaround plan focuses heavily on enhanced parking area lighting and upgraded security measures. The goal is to make it safe and easy for shoppers to visit the mall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of this initiative, Fourways Mall plans to optimise traffic flow and make parking bays bigger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also investing to revitalise the surrounding area, with attention to taxi services, hawkers, landscaping, and traffic light systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initial six-month strategy is poised to lay the foundation for re-establishing Fourways Mall as a top-tier shopping destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourways Mall makes progress<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On 13 June 2024, Fourways Mall announced a new taxi holding area to alleviate road congestion and offer commuters quick and safe access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourways Mall has now expanded its commuter court, which forms part of the revitalisation project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This improvement is aimed at managing traffic flow inside and outside the Fourways Mall, which has been problematic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The underground commuter court was built as part of the expansion project that opened in September 2019. It is located on the basement level, under Pick n Pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This transportation hub has now been expanded with an additional taxi holding area, providing a comfortable and convenient environment for taxi drivers and passengers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It offers two direct access points into the mall, the inclusion of a safe walkway between the taxi rank and drivers\u2019 holding area, and added speed bumps in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The commuter court includes retail offerings, Roots Butchery and Restaurant, Real Fish and Chips and Arthur Ford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe secure and convenient movement of our consumers in and out of the mall is paramount to us,\u201d says Paul Gerard, managing director of Flanagan and Gerard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This taxi hub provides taxi associations with their own designated lanes, ensuring commuters\u2019 ease of use when selecting the route for their final destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The taxis follow a systematic filtering process: filter in, fill up, and move out. Fourways Mall said it maintains strong relations with the taxi associations and works closely with the on-the-ground marshals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPutting the transportation hub underground allows us to operate a controlled space and provide shelter from environmental elements for our customers,\u201d Gerard said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read: Major South African bank up for sale<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fourways Mall has progressed in its aggressive campaign to attract new shops and clients and improve its strained financial position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":779249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12755],"tags":[19940,20094,19746,11615,1498,19967,4067],"class_list":["post-779245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","tag-accelerate-property-fund","tag-dis-chem-clicks","tag-fourways-mall","tag-game","tag-investec","tag-jean-pierre-verster","tag-pick-n-pay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=779245"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":780722,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779245\/revisions\/780722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}