Crossing makes room for improvement

MBOMBELA – Shoppers will be delighted to know that Crossing Shopping Centre will be twice its current size as soon as next year.

Mr Nico van Zyl, managing director of Lowveld Trust, said the expansion came after years of planning.

“Because Crossing is such a successful centre, there is a great demand to expand and now we are finally doing it. It will soon be a centre with a size of 31 000 square metres where it is now only 15 000.”

Lowveld Trust, parent company of Crossing Centre, obtained the land where Virgin Active is, which was municipal land, to make everything one, large consolidated centre.

“We went through all the right channels, including an environmental-impact assessment, and we finally got permission to continue with the expansion,” Van Zyl said.

The project is expected to be completed in two phases. The first is the majority of the shops which will be completed in April 2016. October 2016 will see the completion of phase two, which is mostly offices.

After the upgrades, Crossing Centre will house a Nedbank, a larger Mopani Pharmacy, Wimpy, an upgraded Virgin Active and Outdoor Warehouse.

“There are about 20 shops now. By the end of the project there will be about 50.

A traffic circle and three entrances will ease the flow of traffic within the centre.

The current entrance from the R40 will expand, and the entrances from the N4 and the back entrance from Nelspruit Rugby Club will also become more user-friendly.

Parking will also not be a problem as there will be two parking levels.

“We will have six parking bays per 100 square metres on the top and bottom levels, which is enough for a centre of its size.”

Tree-huggers will be thrilled to hear that the beautiful baobab at the centre’s current main entrance will not be harmed during the upgrades. “We are going to move the tree to its new place on the traffic circle in September,” said Van Zyl. He did not want to disclose the budget as it was still a topic of discussion.