Mega mall to boost Ballito’s economy

The development of the 70 000 square metre Ballito Junction mega mall marks the clear-cut end of Ballito’s small seaside town identity.

The R1.4 billion regional shopping centre is developed and owned by a consortium of Gauteng-based developers, Menlyn Maine and Flanagan & Gerard, and will be the biggest mall on the KZN North Coast.

Construction is expected to take 24 months and the mall is scheduled for opening in March 2017.

Flanagan & Gerard CEO Patrick Flanagan was in Ballito last week to speak at a networking luncheon organised by local property agents Sean’s Property Pulse.

Flanagan said they go where the market is and chose Ballito because the current facilities can no longer meet the demands of the region.

He said the development of the mall will also stimulate further growth in the area.

“The building of the airport has been a major catalyst in Ballito becoming the next major development node,” said Flanagan.

He compared the development of Umhlanga and Ballito to Sandton and Fourways, saying Umhlanga has become the “Sandton” of Durban and Ballito will soon be the area’s “Fourways”.

He said people from the Dolphin Coast spend a lot of time and money travelling to Umhlanga for shopping because of the limited retailers and brands available in Ballito.

“People from the Ballito area annually spend about R300 million in Umhlanga and the new mall with bigger stores and a greater variety of brands will bring that spend back to Ballito,” said Flanagan.

He said the centre’s state of the art Nu Metro cinema will boast 3D and Scene Xtreme theatres (Scene Xtreme is Nu Metro’s answer to Ster Kinekor’s IMAX).

The consortium will invest about R40 million in infrastructure to secure ample water and electricity supply for the centre.

“We have negotiated extensively with the KwaDukuza municipality to ensure that substations will be upgraded. We will also build our own water reservoir and contribute to the upgrading of the road,” said Flanagan.

During construction, up to 1 500 temporary jobs will be created and building material will be sourced locally.

WBHO Construction are the main contractors but sub-contractors are selected from the local pool.

Once operational, the mall will provide up to 1 500 permanent and part-time jobs of which about 80% will be filled by locals, sustaining an estimated 10 000 community members.

“To prevent long queues for jobs on site, a proper channel for registration of CV’s will be established,” said Flanagan.

He said that since the Menlyn Maine and Flanagan & Gerard consortium is not only the developer, but also the owners of the mall, there will be no discontinuing of their involvement and they will “stick around to reap what we sow”.

“We are good at what we do because we are principle-based and focused on retail only. We do not take short cuts, we do our homework, deliver on our promises and build close relationships with retailers,” said Flanagan.

He said they looked forward to participating in the Urban Improvement Project (UIP).