Garden City Mall to get business park
A business park is set to be constructed alongside Garden City mall in Kenya’s capital Nairobi its developers have announced.
The owners of the property dubbed The Garden City Business Park (GCBP) have proposed to divide the land into 10 plots and develop offices on two of them and further lease out the rest for predetermined use. It is planned to occupy 23.5 acres of land along Thika Road and will encompass unique facilities like business hotels, a hospital and offices.
“The GCBP will offer a wide range of dining, leisure and hospitality options to all its clients and offer excellent value to the office community,” regulatory filings with the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) said.
The divided plots are set to be serviced with infrastructure which includes power, water, access roads, sewers and storm water drainage and according to reports, will be used for business, medical, hotel and residential purposes including a four-star and a three-star hotel, a car show room etc.
An office block is also projected to be part of the developments and four office blocks are expected to be built on the two sub-plots, each of them having a four-storey building with two basement levels. Its construction is approximated to be US$ 27m.
The developer of the mall which is the largest mall in Kenya will also define the land use for each sub-plot and seek approvals from relevant people.
The business park will be the second phase of the whole Garden City Mall project.
Garden City Mall which was a US$ 23m development is currently the largest was completed in May last year; the shopping mall was the first phase of the Garden City project that is supported by British private equity firm Actis.
Actis is a leading investor in growth markets across Africa, Asia and Latin America and managing US$7.6bn assets.
Africa’s quest for malls
In recent years Africa has been a hotbed of shopping malls and mixed use developments. South Africa for instance boasts of Mall of Africa while Kenya banks on Two Rivers Mall to lead in East and Central Africa. Nigeria has began the construction of what it says will be a mega mall of its kind.