In a bid to attract foreign investors and retailers and make the city of Harare a
world class city by 2025, a plan to build the nation’s largest and most expensive state-of-the-art shopping mall has been approved by council, which is going to cost roughly $100 million.
The Mall of Zimbabwe in Borrowdale will be constructed similar to South Africa’s Cape Town V&A Waterfront. The air-conditioned mall will consist of 150 retailers, including Woolworths, Edgars and Pick n Pay, upscale and fast food restaurants, recreational facilities, banks and 68,000 square metres. The projected completion date is October 2014 and is expected to create 4,000 jobs.
Zimbabwe’s newest mall will be developed by McCormick Property Development and invested by Augur Investments, but city officials will be closely monitoring and supervising the construction work and the site – many
expected city council to disapprove of the business endeavour.
An artist's impression of the upcoming $100 Mall of Zimbabwe.
McCormick Property Developments
“While everyone was running away from Zimbabwe, we used our gut feelings to invest. We sought local knowledge, and we felt it was time to put money into the country,” said the McCormick developers in an interview with
Radio VOP (via
The South African). “We have the backing of the President, Prime Minister and cabinet ministers because they understand what we are trying to do for Zimbabwe, and we obey the laws of the country.”
An internal memo obtained by
AllAfrica.com reveals that the $100 million cost also includes both water and sewer reticulation and roadworks. “The project is a development of service infrastructure on a site allocated to it by the City of Harare in Borrowdale low-density suburb in Harare,” the memo stated.
McCormick Property Development has built 49 malls around the world worth approximately $1 billion. It is
presently building projects in Burundi, Mozambique and Swaziland.
