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CONSTRUCTION WORLD
MARCH
2017
“First impressions count,” says Olive Ndebele, general manager of
Pretoria’s Menlyn Park Shopping Centre, the largest mall of its kind in
Africa following its two-year R2-billion redevelopment. “We want our
customers to be blown away by what we’re offering. We want them
to find not only everything they need under one roof but also to be
absolutely thrilled by the many, many additional ‘nice-to-have’ and
unique offerings they’ll find at Menlyn Park Shopping Centre.”
To achieve this objective, says Ndebele, you have to know the
mall catchment area and exactly who your mall will be servicing,
and that’s generally the community in which it is located – although
the very popular Menlyn Park Shopping Centre is also a magnet to
residents of the outlying suburbs of Pretoria, the large contingent of
the foreign businesspeople and diplomats who live in South Africa’s
executive capital city, and keen shoppers from the African diaspora
including Sadec and sub-Saharan Africa.
“You have to ensure there’s as close a match between the
needs of your target markets, their buying capacity, and the kinds
of tenants present in your mall,” says Ndebele. For this reason,
Menlyn Park Shopping Centre management conducted extensive
market research in order to have insights the demographics, needs,
size and disposable income of their target markets, as well as their
aspirations and preferences.
But getting the tenant mix right isn’t important just to bring
feet into the mall. It’s vital for the tenants themselves too. “Ideally,
you want complementary stores feeding off each other, meeting
shoppers’ needs and enhancing revenues,” Ndebele says.
The right anchor tenants
Niche retailers, which are the many little stores that provide the
variety in a shopping centre, don’t usually have large marketing or
advertising budget, so they rely on the larger retailers in the mall to
bring in the customers. “Anchor tenants, which are generally grocery
offerings in South Africa, bring the critical mass into the mall,”
Ndebele explains. “If, as a shopping-
centre manager, you get the right
anchor tenants, the smaller retailers
will feel reassured that a certain type
of consumer will definitely be visiting
the mall, and that the foot count will
therefore be assured to at least a
certain degree, and that will probably
encourage them to set up shop in
your mall.”
These retailers include what
Ndebele calls the ‘non-retail services’,
such as (in the case of Menlyn Park
Shopping Centre) a Fives Futbol, Fun
company, a speciality store, a dry-
Getting the mix right
There are many factors that contribute to the success
– or otherwise – of a shopping centre, and getting the
right tenant mix is right up there at the top of the list.
The general manager of a major mall weighs in on what
‘tenant mix’ really means.
Olive Ndebele, general
manager of Pretoria’s
Menlyn Park
Shopping Centre.
cleaner, a barber, an internet-browsing store, a travel agent and an
e-toll outlet. “These offerings ensure a more holistic approach to
our tenant mix, and they do also contribute invidually to the mall’s
footcount,” she points out.
There are a couple of further important criteria when it comes to
tenant mix: where your tenants are located, and how much space
their shops take up are also vital.
The same applies, says Ndebele, to the mall’s Fashion Wing,
where cutting-edge fashion brands are grouped together over three
levels; and the new spacious food and entertainment area, with
popular eateries clustered together, offering a very wide choice
within a pleasant space where customers can linger.
The bottom line, says Ndebele, is finding the sweet spot for
your customers between convenience and experience. “And mall
management must never forget that all tenants affect footcount –
both the big destination stores that anchor a mall, and the smaller
‘impulse-buy’ and ‘non-retail’ stores that make up the mix.”
Meeting the working needs of modern businesses, professionals
and entrepreneurs, leading JSE-listed REIT Growthpoint Properties
has partnered with local co-working space trailblazers OPEN in a
50/50 joint venture. Together they will grow an exciting network of
co-working spaces across South Africa.
Co-working spaces allow entrepreneurs, consultants, service-
providers, and corporate teams convenience and flexibility.
Businesses are afforded a means of growing and shrinking more
easily as well as a way to house consultants and temporary staff.
Eight inspiring new co-working locations
Technology has changed the way people work and, as
a result, office arrangements and work environments
are changing too. This has led to the rise of co-working.
Thanks to their cost-efficiency, flexibility, and often
inspiring environments, co-working spaces are attracting
a growing user base from businesses big and small,
locally and globally.
Co-working spaces solve the need for space for meetings, working
at a desk, audio-visual needs, and coffee and food for a more mobile
business generation, while away from a head office.
The joint venture’s first new co-working space will open in
Sandton Central this July at Growthpoint’s 138 West Street office
building, across the road from Sandton Gautrain Station.
OPEN designs, builds and manages inspiring and comfortable
spaces to work, meet, learn, collaborate and hold events. It has two
existing co-working spaces – OPEN Maboneng in Johannesburg
and Workshop17 at V&A Waterfront in Cape Town – which have
redefined workspaces as flexible, multifunctional places for working,
connecting, developing and creating.
For Growthpoint, the joint venture adds to the full range of
workspaces it offers for all kinds of business to thrive in, from
iconic headquarters for large corporates to collaborative spaces for
entrepreneurs starting out on their business journeys.
Commenting on the joint venture, Norbert Sasse, CEO of
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