New shopping experience coming as Sandgrouse Market transforms into mall

For the residents, especially shoppers, of Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Yaba, Surulere and environs, a new shopping experience is on the way as the popular  Sandgrouse Market will, in the next 18 to 24 months, be redeveloped and transformed into a modern shopping mall.

The new mall which has already signed the South African retail chain, Shoprite, as anchor tenant is being promoted by DHB Sandgrouse Limited in collaboration with the Lagos State government and the Lagos Island East Local Government Council.

Hakeem Bakare, the CEO of Sandgrouse Mall Limited, hinted at the presentation of the mall’s  master-plan recently, that the redevelopment of the market to a modern mall of their dream would  cost about N5 billion, assuring that the market’s reputation for providing shoppers good bargain would be carried to the mall and that it would be enhanced with the presence of Shoprite as mall’s leading brand.

The mall, which is designed to rise three floors including the ground level, would have three cinemas, food court, banks and other facilities that would enhance its value, and there will be two escalators—one for goods and services and the other for the normal traffic in the mall.

Bakare explained that  the market was being redeveloped to serve Lagosians better and to enhance the status of Lagos as a mega city, adding that his company has been undertaking such redevelopment of markets successfully

“This is not the first time we are going about the redevelopment of markets”, he said, pointing out that besides Shoprite, there would be other notable retailers  in the mall which would also accommodate the existing shop owners who will be given the right of first choice.

“These existing tenants will be well taken care of and would be subsidised to enable them buy or lease the stalls; we are going to subsidise them because they cannot afford to pay for a shop in the mall which goes for N1.6 million per squsre metre for outright sale and N158,400 per square metre for those who want lease which has 25-year period”, he said.

Sandgrouse, he said, has two sides, one for the mall and the other for wet goods, explaining that  the two sides as “the part that has been demolished for redevelopment and the side that is yet to be demolished because there is no proper place to relocate people selling there now, considering the size and topography of that area.”

The bigger size of the mall is being built on 19,600 square metres while the smaller section is about 5,200 square metres and, according to Bakare, Sandgrouse has numerous advantages in the sense that it is easy to access from Ebute Metta, Osborne Fourshore, Parkview estate, Awolowo Road and environs.

“The most important thing is that Lagos State is building an estate of about 3,000 flats at Ilubirin;   Sandgrouse has been serving people that live in Ikoyi, Dolphin and its environs and those in Eko, among others. It is a good location for business and for people who want to catch up with happenings in the city”, he said.

He disclosed that construction work has started with the demolition and that they were doing piling because of the topography of the area and also because there would be basement parking, adding that there would be parking for about 500 vehicles on both the surface and basement slots.

To enhance security in and around the mall, the company would build a station for the police in the mall, he said, and explained that there was actually a post in the Sandgrouse market area which the Police had left because of flood in the area.

“We have gotten an approval for the construction of the police station and we are going to build it as part of our corporate social responsibility. Fire points will be in the mall since there are two fire stations not far from it; one is at Onikan and the other on Awolowo Road”, he noted.

CHUKA UROKO