{"id":16694,"date":"2012-11-16T03:01:47","date_gmt":"2012-11-16T01:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/11\/the-rejuvenation-of-port-elizabeths-cbd\/"},"modified":"2012-11-16T03:01:47","modified_gmt":"2012-11-16T01:01:47","slug":"the-rejuvenation-of-port-elizabeths-cbd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/the-rejuvenation-of-port-elizabeths-cbd\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rejuvenation of Port Elizabeth\u2019s CBD"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A number of big retail brands, including a national bank, have signalled their confidence in the rejuvenated Port Elizabeth central business district by moving into Pier 14 Shopping Centre on Govan Mbeki Avenue in time for the festive season.<\/p>\n

The most recent addition, the North End branch of Standard Bank, is relocating to Pier 14 and will open for business on December 1. It joins new fast food franchise outlets Debonairs Pizza and Cassie\u2019s, which started trading last month.<\/p>\n

According to Martin Wragge, CEO of GRITprop Investments, which owns Pier 14 Shopping Centre, the influx of national tenants was in part due to a five-year, R40-million expansion process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe upgrade has increased footfall and turnover and we now have more than eight million feet passing through our doors annually.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wragge said management was anticipating bumper peak season trading, with retail turnovers expected to top R270 million for the financial year. \u201cWe are thrilled that our efforts to increase trading volumes are finally paying off.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said total average trading densities were up by 18.1% and that the trend was expected to continue as management not only attracted new tenants but also \u201cright-sized\u201d the existing tenant base.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo many of our tenants have been trading in oversized spaces due to historically cheap rentals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past six months, Pier 14 had been engaged in a process of reducing the floor space of existing tenants by between 20 and 50%, said Wragge. \u201cThe result is better densities, more affordable rentals and greater profitability for the tenants and centre alike.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the downsizing process had also opened up new trading spaces for retailers on the ground and first floors, which had been fully occupied for some time.<\/p>\n

Wragge said this had helped to diversify Pier 14\u2019s tenant mix, which comprised mainly fashion, footwear, music, furniture and appliances, as well as health and beauty stores.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the recent addition of Cassie\u2019s and Debonairs, we now have a good mix of food retailers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Debonairs Pizza co-owner Taki Pitsiladi said he and his partners, brother Peter and Hugo Fourie, had always believed that there were good business opportunities to be had in the centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s lots of trade and movement on the ground floor and we\u2019re in a good position right next to (anchor tenant) Shoprite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Pier 14 fitted a Chingos chicken outlet, an Old Fashioned Fish and Chips as well as the Linga Longa restaurant<\/a> to join existing traders Hungry Lion, Pie City and King Pie.<\/p>\n

Wragge said Standard Bank\u2019s presence would strengthen the centre\u2019s financial services offering, which included Nedbank, Old Mutual Finance, Surebank, Bayport Financial Services and Bridge Loans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re currently in negotiations with a few more national tenants, which we obviously can\u2019t name yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pier 14 features seven floors of office and retail space covering a gross lettable area of 30 273m2, including the revamped 25 000m\u00b2 retail component.<\/p>\n

\"Debonairs<\/a><\/p>\n

Pier 14 Shopping Centre in Port Elizabeth has seen an influx of tenants in time for the festive season. Pictured here at the new Debonairs Pizza store are co-owners Peter (far left) and Taki Pitsiladi (far right) with Sonja de Necker (second from left) and Sophia Steyn of centre management. Photographer: Photo: Coetzee Gouws\/Full Stop Communications<\/p>\n

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A number of big retail brands, including a national bank, have signalled their confidence in the rejuvenated Port Elizabeth central business district by moving into Pier 14 Shopping Centre on Govan Mbeki Avenue in time for the festive season. The most recent addition, the North End branch of Standard Bank, is relocating to Pier 14 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[1289,5],"class_list":{"0":"post-16694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-mype","8":"tag-port-elizabeth-2","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}