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CONSTRUCTION WORLD
NOVEMBER
2015
Victory Park – a community shopping centre in
the Johannesburg suburb of Victory Park – has
been given an extensive makeover by leading
shopping centre developers and investors the
Bentel Group, which has pumped R100-million
into its redevelopment.
Bentel Group acquired the centre in 2010 when it was about
6 500 m
2
in size and in a flagging state with largely ‘mom and pop’
type stores and just one major anchor. Known originally as Victory
Terrace, it was a poorly developed small neighbourhood centre with serious
design issues. However, recognising its latent potential, Bentel bought the
centre and has now turned it around into a prime convenience retail property
asset not only for the group, but for the area.
“We are really chuffed with what we have achieved at Victory Park. We
acquired the centre at a good price, and have invested about R100-million
into its redevelopment. The project has taken time with several challenges,
but we now have turned around the centre, effectively doubling its size to
around 13 000 m
2
and with four major anchor tenants,” says Selwyn Bentel,
director of Bentel Group.
“When we bought the centre, it had numerous small ‘mom and pop’ type
stores and a single anchor, Pick n Pay. With our redevelopment, we have
strengthened the centre bringing in more national brands and now have
four anchors – Woolworths Food, Dis-Chem, Virgin Active and the original
Pick n Pay. The centre now has adequate parking bays, while other new
tenants include Mugg & Bean, CNA and Levingers dry cleaners. It is home
to about 20 retail stores, eateries and service outlets.
“The redevelopment project has also addressed the access and design
challenges of the original centre. It’s a great transformation considering what
the centre was like when we bought it. This has been a complicated project
and the last phase was completed in August 2015,” he adds.
Bentel comments: “Some of the challenges the original centre faced
included the fact that it was set on a narrow strip of steep sloping land
with poor access from Rustenburg Road and Second Street; it had zoning
issues with two land uses on the site, as well as a service station owned
by someone else.
“All these issues have been addressed with the centre’s transformation
over the past few years. In the last phase, we removed the service station
and extended the parking slab creating a user friendly parking experience.
We nowhave a great community centre with good access and better parking,
in addition to an excellent complement of tenants.”
Victory Park’s makeover project was concluded last in August with
the final phase of the redevelopment being the completion of the new
parking slab.
Bentel concludes: “The new bigger, better Victory Park has been very
well received by the local community. The centre is also virtually fully
let. Victory Park having four major brands as anchor tenants is excellent
for a centre its size, and shoppers are the winners too – benefiting from
a strong retail offering. We see the centre going from strength to strength
following its transformation.”
VICTORY PARK SHOPPING CENTRE TRANSFORMED
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