Investor responds to market demand, plans retail malls in FCT

The strong demand for modern shopping centres by new and existing retail brands (local and foreign), seeking more foothold in Nigeria’s evolving retail market is, increasingly, gaining momentum especially at uptown neighbourhoods.

The demand, which is fuelled by a increased spending power of the emerging middle class and rising demographics, has seen real estate developers commence construction on about a dozen retail malls in the last one year in different parts of the country.

One of such developers, Novare Equity Partners, says it is set to commence the construction of two new retail malls in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, by the end of the second quarter of this year.

The first to be known as Gateway Mall will be located at the South Western part of the city, along the Airport Expressway and will be developed in two phases. The first phase will berth a total of 16,000 square meters of retail space, anchored by Shoprite at a total cost of $70 million.

The second project to be called Central Office Park, will be situated in Wuse District, berthing a total of 11,000 square meters of retail space and three floors for offices.

“The rationale for constructing the two malls is a combination of an extremely growing consumer culture which we have noticed in the FCT, coupled with our team’s increasing efficiencies due to economies of scale,” Hein du Plesis, project manager, Lekki Mall—an upcoming mall by the same investor—told BusinessDay in an interview.

Hein who believes that the FCT is still significantly under-supplied with modern shopping malls, maintained that, considering the city’s consumer spend, the market opportunity for any investor willing to build a mall remained huge despite the ongoing construction of few retail centres in the city.

“Any other global city will already have exponentially more retail offerings given the size of the population as well as the size of the potential consumer spending,” he said.

“We agree that there has been some significant growth in retail offerings over the past two years, pioneered by Novare, but the potential is still vast”, he said, disclosing that both projects would be financed by the Novare Africa Property Funds as well as local debt providers.

On his firm’s strategy to attract the best retail brands as well as shoppers to its mall, Hein said, ”our strong relationship with retailers will also assist us in offering consumers only the best there is to offer in terms of range as well as price.”

ODINAKA MBONU