Roy Cokayne
THE DEVELOPMENT of the R2 billion Bay West Mall in Port Elizabeth is set to unlock dramatic growth in the Nelson Mandela Bay metropole.
This was the message conveyed this week to businessmen at a PwC investment seminar by Bay West City managing director Gavin Blows, who confirmed that the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) had committed R300 million to the project. He said the Bay West Mall was the first phase of the “city within a city” project that would unfold over 15 years along the N2 in the western suburbs.
The mall is jointly owned and managed by Abacus Asset Management and the Billion Group.
Blows said about R120m of the R300m from Sanral was earmarked for the development of roads for the first phase, with Bay West carrying the R150m further cost for the access routes.
“Bay West Mall has secured 250 tenants, of which 85 percent are major national retailers.”
More than 10 000 jobs are expected to be created during construction, 3 000 through direct employment and more than 7 000 indirectly. About 1 500 permanent jobs were expected to be created on completion of the Bay West Mall.