Owerri Mall gets November opening date
The Owerri Mall, a joint venture development involving Resilient Africa as the developer, Somachi Investments, Terrestrial Real Estate, Median Infrastructure Development Company Limited and a leasing firm, Broll Nigeria, is expected to open for business at the end of November this year.
The Retail Portfolio Executive, Broll Nigeria, Mr. Johan Blom, said at an investors’ forum in Lagos that leasing of spaces at the mall began last year and had reached 65 per cent with Shoprite as the anchor tenant and Genesis Deluxe Cinemas providing entertainment.
He added that the mall, with a gross lettable space of 11, 000 square metres, would have 43 shops for occupation by renowned brands.
“The mall will be opening fully on November 26, but will be opening in phases from this month; some shops will open in October, some in November and finally, some will be opening in January next year,” he said.
The Chief Operating Officer, Resilient Africa, Mr. Eddie McDonald, said the Owerri Mall, whose construction work commenced 24 months ago, was the firm’s third development in the country, having earlier done the Delta Mall in Warri and another ongoing construction in Asaba, all worth about $150m.
“We are looking at providing a world class shopping experience in Owerri to cater for a population of between 750,000 and one million people,” he said.
McDonald said the choice of second tier cities for the development of malls was based on the non-availability of land in the major cities, especially Lagos, where he said it was becoming increasingly difficult to find space.
He added, “The availability of land is very limited in Lagos; if we can have 50,000 square metres of land in a place in the city, we would love to build a mall; but if you find the land, there may be many landlords and it is extremely difficult for all the landlords to agree; it is a big challenge to build malls in Nigeria and Lagos, especially. Land values in Lagos are way too high for retail development.
“Lagos can have more than 20 malls but the problem is finding viable lands that are affordable. But in the second tier cities, the proximity of the malls to the GRAs is much more than what it could be in Lagos, otherwise we will be building outside the town and no one will go there; we must have population in proximity to a mall.”
McDonald said Resilient Africa intended to move to third and fourth tier cities eventually and was already looking at developments in Abeokuta, Osogbo, Benin, Uyo and Ojo in Lagos, among others.
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