Musina to benefit from major mall development

The bustling border town of Musina yet again boasts another major development project, this time totalling approximately R320 million.

The development will see the expansion of the current Great North Plaza from 14 000m² to 34 000m² on a prime piece of CBD land acquired by the developers, directly adjacent to the current premises. Upon completion, the centre will be re-branded as the Musina Mall.

The Great North Plaza was initially built and owned by the Solly Noor Property Group but was sold to the Investec Property Fund for R145 million in 2011. Investec has now gone in partnership with the Moolman Group, who will develop the centre as co-owners.

But why Musina? Over the last couple of years, the region saw major mall developments such as the opening of Mall of the North in Polokwane. Louis Trichardt itself is earmarked for a major shopping mall development that will see the expansion of Makhado Crossing by the Masingita Group of Companies.

“The strong trading conditions of the existing centre [Great North Plaza] has attracted a demand from existing and new retailers to expand their existing offerings and introduce new brands to the mall. The extension is already more than 87% let, including national retailers such as Checkers, Jet, Edgars and Pep,” said Mr Nick Riley, Investec Property Fund CEO. He said that the mall was one of the best and comparable to only a few in Limpopo towns. An estimated 48 015 people, or 13 291 households, reside within the primary area (within 10 to 15 minutes’ driving time of Musina) and an estimated 45 241 people or 12 917 households reside within the secondary market area that is within 60 minutes’ driving time.

Ms Mandie Weidemann of the Moolman Group added to this, stating that cross-border trade also played a huge role in the economy of Musina, but that other sectors were also contributing, such as De Beers’ Venetia Mine, which is currently undergoing an expansion of some R33 billion.

The sod-turning ceremony for the proposed new expansion of the Great North Plaza took place in January and it is envisaged that the development will be fully operational by April 2017. The development will be completed in a single phase, with construction work being outsourced to main building contractor CMC Koch Construction from Polokwane.

“At present, the current centre has 42 stores and we are aiming to expand the centre to approximate 100 stores, with new entries like Truworths, Edgars and Studio 88. The national retailers that are in the current centre are Shoprite, Checkers, Tekkie Town, Fashion Express, Exact, Markham, Total Sport, Fashion World, Foschini, Beaver Canoe, Sterns, Sport Scene, PEP, Wimpy, Nandos, Debonairs, Old Mutual, FNB Easy Plan, Chicken Licken, and a few others,” said Weidemann. From these current retailers, Foschini, Sport Scene, Total Sport, Exact, Markham, Fashion Express, Woolworths, Clicks and Mr. Price will relocate to the new extension. “We plan to replace those spaces with more fashion and food offerings,” said Weidemann. Other new national retailers and businesses to take up space in the new Musina Mall include Mr. Price Home, Identity, Skipper Bar, Legit, Nedbank, Standard Bank, Ideals, Pep, Ackermans, Shoe City, John Craig and Dunns. The current anchor tenants at Great North Plaza are Shoprite Checkers and Cashbuild. They will remain the anchor tenants at the new Musina Mall, with the addition of Woolworths."

During the sod-turning ceremony, Musina mayor Cllr Mihloti Muhlope hailed the investment, saying it would not only bring development to her municipality, but also ease the burden of unemployment in the area. Approximate job creation during construction phase will be about 500 jobs and an additional 500 permanent new jobs will be available as a result of the expansion.

Date:11 February 2016

By: Andries van Zyl

Andries joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in April 1993 as a darkroom assistant. Within a couple of months he moved over to the production side of the newspaper and eventually doubled as a reporter. In 1995 he left the newspaper group and travelled overseas for a couple of months. In 1996, Andries rejoined the Zoutpansberger as a reporter. In August 2002, he was appointed as News Editor of the Zoutpansberger, a position he holds until today.

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