New $130 million shopping centre for Duran already has expansion plan in the pipeline
Investec Property has opened a new R1.8bn ($132m) shopping mall called Cornubia,near Mount Edgecombe, north of Durban in South Africa, home to a “new home, business and commercial development” – no one is calling Cornubia a new town, but thousands of homes and new business parks are set to make it one.
Investec Property SA head Darryl Mayers said there are 110 retailers in the new 65,000m² mall, which has taken eight years to construct.
Competitors include one of Africa’s largest malls, the 220,000m² Umhlanga’s Gateway Theatre of Shopping and Ballito Junction, which opened in March.
Developers describe the development of Cornubia as “KwaZulu-Natal’s largest mixed-use, mixed-income, fully-integrated human settlement. This is strategically located adjacent to Mount Edgecombe and the Gateway Theatre of Shopping. The development is emerging as a highly sought-after residential and business location, with rapid uptake of commercial and industrial sites by developers, end-users and listed property funds who recognise the development’s attributes and business potential.
“The new Cornubia Town Centre is poised for development as an environmentally-friendly business and mixed-use district and forms the nucleus of the inter-linked corporate business and affordable residential components, which dominate the overall Cornubia development. It is located in the intersection of the M41 and N2, adjacent to the Cornubia Retail Park and south of the N2 Business Estate. The town centre will span a total of 25 hectares of mixed-use development comprising of a comprehensive range of shopping, business, commercial, residential, social and business park activities.”
And the development includes business and industrial estates to provide employment and boost the local economy – the new mall is a vital part of that development.
According to Investec, KwaZulu-Natal still has scope for new retail centres, says a report on Businesslive.co.za, today.
“We have brought a number of firsts to KwaZulu-Natal’s communities from Bounce Trampoline Park, Cycle Lab megastore, Fives Futbol, Consol Glass and a seven-screen Nu Metro cinema complex featuring 4DX to being one of the only malls to offer all three large food retailers, Pick n Pay, Checkers and Spar,” Mayers said.
“There is room for further growth of the mall and there is already a plan underway for a 20,000m² expansion in the future. The second phase will include a further 70 stores that would be added. The mall has brought infrastructure, jobs and skills transfer and improved transport to residents within the Cornubia development and surrounding communities,” said Mayers.
“The opening of Cornubia Mall marks a major milestone for its investors, the city, the various stakeholders and the people of this community, as it is the manifestation of big-sky thinking that can be achieved in partnership between government and business,” said Councillor Sipho Kaunda in his address at the launch event.
“The mall, set within the Cornubia Presidential Project, acts as a link on so many levels between a number of communities from varied economic backgrounds and heralds opportunities for employment, skills transfers, economic growth and development.
Trading densities, or turnover per square metre, have been declining across an array of shopping centres in SA, recent statistics released at the South African Council of Shopping Centres’ national conference in Cape Town showed.
The IPD SA Retail Trading Density Index recently reported that for the second quarter of 2017, super-regional malls or centres sized 74,000m² and more, experienced an 8.2 per cent fall year on year in trading density growth. Trading density growth in regional malls or centres sized between 37,000m² and 74,000m² increased a measly 0.5 per cent. Community centres, which are between 9,300m² and 32,500m², did the best with 2.8 per cent growth in trading density overall, followed by neighbourhood centres, between 2,800m² and 13,900m², which achieved 1.2 per cent growth.
