Mega Menlyn mall expects 2m visitors in December

Johannesburg – The newly redeveloped Menlyn Park Shopping Centre is the largest mall in Africa and 2m people are expected to visit the mall in December, say developers.

Fin24 spoke to Charl Marais - who is development manager at Pareto Limited which owns Menlyn Park Shopping Centre - ahead of the mall’s opening on Thursday, November 24.

“It is the largest mall in Africa,” Marais said.

Menlyn Park Shopping Centre's total lettable floor space is 177 000m² and has over 500 stores. This is bigger than the Mall of Africa which has a floor space of 130 000m² and over 300 stores.

READ: Giant mall helps make Menlyn one of Gauteng's fastest growing regions

Stores at Menlyn Park Shopping Centre include international brands such as Zara and H&M Clothing. International and South African brands are represented in the mall, said Marais. There are also local stores, unique to Pretoria, he added.

The mall’s redevelopment has been coming along since April 2014.

“We are proud of ourselves in terms of sticking to our committed dates,” said Marais.

He explained that the redevelopment was scheduled to open in November 2016 and that it is coincidental that Black Friday is happening on November 25.

“Black Friday is a bit of a new phenomenon. It was not specifically planned but we do believe we are leveraging on it. I think it has worked out well for us,” he said.

The fact that Black Friday falls on the opening weekend adds excitement, said Marais.

Shoppers will be getting “opening specials” from new and existing tenants.

“We are anticipating a very interesting weekend.”

ALSO READ: Tens of thousands of consumers descend on Mall of Africa

Regarding competitors, Marais explained that the mall's main competitors would mainly be shopping developments in Pretoria.

“Our main trading base is the Tshwane and surrounding areas. We do not particularly see ourselves as a direct competitor to Mall of Africa. They are in a different region. I think Mall of Africa competes with other centres closer to it,” he said.

The market reach of the mall extends beyond Tshwane and includes consumers from Nelspruit, Limpopo, Rustenburg and Polokwane as well.

“We get a lot of tourist visitors as well, especially Sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.