Last year, during its 10th year anniversary, the Greater Edendale Mall in Pietermaritzburg was destroyed during the July civil turmoil in South Africa. It is now being dismantled, with hopes to rebuild it better. Greater Edendale Mall first opened its doors to the general public in 2011. It was the second-largest shopping mall in Pietermaritzburg at the time. It cost more than R450 million to develop and housed more than 100 retailers, including Shoprite and Pick n Pay.
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Over the next ten years, the 31,348 square-metre shopping mall became a favourite destination for Pietermaritzburg residents. Then the commotion began. Violence and looting raged throughout sections of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng for more than a week in mid-July 2021. More than 340 people were killed, and the KwaZulu-Natal economy alone suffered an R20 billion loss. Looters stormed around 80 commercial malls throughout the province. Greater Edendale Mall was among the hardest impacted.
The Greater Edendale Mall’s Redevelopment
Gayle Crow, head of communications at Exemplar REIT, which had six of its facilities damaged during the disturbance, indicated that the Greater Edendale Mall sustained substantial damage, both aesthetically and physically, due to fires set throughout the week. The engineers have declared that the majority of the mall must be destroyed. Because certain mall parts sustained less significant damage, some of the walls and roofing will be preserved. The key regions where the looting was most serious will need to be completely demolished and rebuilt.
Demolition work has already begun and will take about 8 weeks to finish. According to Crow, the facility was destroyed and would require major portions of the existing mall to be razed before construction on the restoration can begin. The mall plans to return to the public in 16 months – in mid-2023 – with a better design and tenant mix to better serve the Pietermaritzburg population. According to Exemplar CEO Jason McCormick, the protests wreaked havoc on small enterprises. Many local tenants have shuttered and will not reopen. However, he noted that this has presented the mall with an unexpected chance to attract new talent while presenting a renewed tenant mix that speaks directly to the community’s current needs.
