{"id":805136,"date":"2025-01-06T06:36:25","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T04:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=805136"},"modified":"2025-01-06T12:14:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T10:14:47","slug":"serious-trouble-at-south-africas-biggest-shopping-mall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/805136\/serious-trouble-at-south-africas-biggest-shopping-mall\/","title":{"rendered":"Serious trouble at South Africa’s biggest shopping mall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fourways Mall faces significant challenges with many empty stores, low foot traffic, a poor reputation, and struggling financials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BusinessTech\u2019s recent visit to Fourways Mall confirmed that most of these challenges remain, and that it has a lot of work to do to remedy the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourways Mall is the largest shopping centre in South Africa, with a gross lettable area (GLA) of over 178,000 m\u00b2 and around 350 stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After an expensive expansion and revamp in 2019, it became the biggest shopping mall in the country. The owners were upbeat about its future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, pumping large amounts of money into Fourways Mall did not produce the desired results, with a big increase in vacant shops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 2021 to 2023, Fourways Mall\u2019s vacancy rate increased from 3% to 8%, and net rent per square meter declined from R298 to R262.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its fair value declined from R9.6 billion in 2020 to R8.04 billion three years later, illustrating its challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fourways Mall\u2019s performance continued to deteriorate, forcing its owners to take drastic measures to remedy the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It embarked on a turnaround plan aimed at reestablishing Fourways Mall as a top-tier shopping destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strategy included partnering with Flanagan & Gerard as the strategic asset managers and Moolman Group as the property managers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also improving signage for seamless navigation, introducing new tenants, and deploying backup power solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is improving security through better parking area lighting, upgrading security measures, optimising traffic flow, enlarging parking bays, and revitalising the surrounding area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accelerate Property Fund CEO Abri Schneider said they had made significant progress in a very short time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, the mall focussed on the overall shopper experience and ambience as well as the tenant mix and layout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn addition, progress was made with renewing leases as well as signing on a significant number of new leases,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said a lot of effort has gone into and continues to re-establish Fourways Mall\u2019s brand, including behind-the-scenes efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is adding significant entertainment and catering offerings, including padel courts, a running track, and several eateries offering everything from organic produce to fine dining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, an e-hailing, pick-up, and drop-off area has been created, opening up the entertainment node and enhancing the mall\u2019s accessibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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BusinessTech visits Fourways Mall<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To see whether the turnaround plan has changed Fourways Mall\u2019s fortunes, BusinessTech visited it to see first-hand what is happening there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting to the parking was easy. However, there was no sign of the bigger parking bays or where one would find them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the shopping centre looks better than it did when we visited it earlier in 2024, it clearly continued to struggle with empty stores and low foot traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fourways Mall used modern and informative window wraps for empty stores, which made it look better than having one store after another look abandoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this was mostly used in the busiest areas of the mall. Many other areas were completely deserted, and they did not bother to hide the empty stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It did not look like there were any plans to fill these stores, which raises questions on whether there is any demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another striking thing about our visit was that despite it being during the festive season, there were very few people in the Fourways Mall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We visited Fourways Mall after Sandton City, and the latter was buzzing with people doing Christmas shopping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We expected Fourways Mall to have similar foot traffic to Sandton City, but that was not the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It felt like Fourways Mall was far too large for the number of shoppers, and many whole wings in the centre were ghost towns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stores were completely empty, and many others had more shop attendants than clients. Not much commerce was taking place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it was time to leave, there was a challenge. The parking payment terminal did not work, and nobody knew what to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People were walking around trying to find an alternative, which was challenging. It took a long walk to find a place to pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BusinessTech spoke to people living in the area, who said they do not even consider visiting the mall because of its poor reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the mall is working hard to address its reputational problems, it still has some way to go before it reaches its goal of being a top-tier shopping destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Video of empty stores in Fourways Mall<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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