{"id":793913,"date":"2024-10-07T07:35:53","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T05:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=793913"},"modified":"2024-10-07T07:35:58","modified_gmt":"2024-10-07T05:35:58","slug":"the-r3-5-billion-ghost-shopping-mall-in-pretoria-which-is-completely-empty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/property\/793913\/the-r3-5-billion-ghost-shopping-mall-in-pretoria-which-is-completely-empty\/","title":{"rendered":"The R3.5 billion ‘ghost’ shopping mall in Pretoria which is completely empty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The R3.5 billion Villa shopping centre southeast of Pretoria has been in a derelict state for fifteen years without any signs of improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Villa shopping centre on the corner of Delmas and De Villebois roads in Moreleta Park was one of Sharemax\u2019s ambitious projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharemax Investments was started in 1999 by Willie Botha and showed strong growth to become one of South Africa\u2019s largest unlisted property investment companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Botha, who served as Sharemax\u2019s managing director, explained that they made it possible for retail investors to get exposure to prime commercial property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said their investment scheme \u201ctakes a wholesale building and turns it into a retail product, in which individuals can invest by means of shareholding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharemax acted as the promoter where \u201cwell-located, prime suburban shopping centres are registered and managed as a single company\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, the individual investors obtained a shareholding in a shopping centre that has a building as an underlying asset without a bond on the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It sounded great on paper. However, in 2010, the South African Reserve Bank found that Sharemax\u2019s funding models contravened the Bank\u2019s Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September 2010, the Registrar\u2019s Office issued directives to Sharemax and its property syndication companies to repay the funds obtained from members of the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This directive triggered the collapse of Sharemax’s property syndication schemes, in which investors lost millions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many people argued that the South African Reserve Bank caused Sharemax\u2019s collapse rather than shady business practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, others, like Noluntu Bam, the former ombud for financial advisory and intermediary services (Fais), argued that some Sharemax projects functioned like a Ponzi scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hawks also investigated allegations that Sharemax committed fraud and whether it operated a pyramid or Ponzi scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Sharemax attorney Eckaard Le Roux denied allegations that Sharemax\u2019s property syndication schemes were Ponzis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) investigated the matter and is set to release a report on property syndication schemes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Villa shopping centre<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Villa shopping centre in Moreleta Park was one of Sharemax\u2019s most ambitious property syndication projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shopping centre on the corner of Delmas and De Villebois roads attracted thousands of investors who pumped R1.5 billion into the scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Villa shopping centre was set to become one of the largest shopping centres in South Africa, competing against the popular Menlyn Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Construction started in January 2009 and was anticipated to reach practical completion at the end of August 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Villa Mall was set to provide retail space for over 300 tenants with 90,000 square meters of retail space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The precinct would also feature 16,000 square meters of office space and around 5,000 square meters of lifestyle space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shopping centre was also set to be one of the most advanced in environmental initiatives and being green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rainwater would be harvested from a third of the total roof area and reused for irrigation and toilet flushing, and the landscape was set to be designed with waterwise plantings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A combination of green roofs, photovoltaics, and a roofing material with a high solar reflectance index would have minimised the urban heat island effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

30% of the cement used in the project was replaced by industrial waste products, reducing the concrete’s embodied energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was also a 20% reduction in structural concrete by having a lightweight facade and internal partitioning structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, just as the mall was 75% complete and starting to take shape, the Sharemax collapse in 2010 stopped construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharemax\u2019s Botha tried to rescue the project and ensure investors did not lose their money. However, this was not successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2011, Capicol CEO Paul Kyriacou said that the development of The Villa shopping centre would cost between R700 million and R800 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, over the last fourteen years, the Sharemax matter has been tied up in litigation and there has been no further development at the mall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The community has regularly raised their frustrations about the structure, which is an eyesore in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the city could not do much as there are many ongoing legal battles surrounding the Sharemax scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that the Villa Mall remains completely empty, without any clarity on whether or when it will be completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What was planned with the Villa Mall<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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What the Villa Mall looks like today<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Read: One of Joburg\u2019s biggest shopping malls is in trouble<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The R3.5 billion Villa shopping centre southeast of Pretoria has been in a derelict state for fifteen years without any signs of improvement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":793917,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12755],"tags":[20628,20626,4043,20625,20627],"class_list":["post-793913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","tag-menlyn-park","tag-sharemax-investments","tag-south-african-reserve-bank","tag-villa-shopping-centre","tag-willie-botha"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793913","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=793913"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":793993,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793913\/revisions\/793993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}