\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t \t\t <\/p>\n
Sharika Regchand <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
BILLIONS of rand in investment were in the pipeline for Pietermaritzburg, ranging from a private hospital to a hotel and shopping centres, a report handed yesterday to the Msunduzi municipality executive committee revealed. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
But it was not all good news. <\/p>\n
David Gengan, manager of investment promotion for the municipality, said the city\u2019s second-largest shopping centre, the Greater Edendale Mall, was suffering. The R300 million development opened its doors in October 2011 and was expected to serve as a catalyst for development in the area. <\/p>\n
Just more than a year down the line, businesses were packing up and leaving. <\/p>\n
The centre has space for more than 100 tenants. National retailers included Shoprite, Pick n Pay, Truworths, Edgars, Markhams, Jet, Legit, Mr Price, Vodacom, Cell C, Chicken Licken, Hungry Lion, Spur, McDonald\u2019s and Steers. <\/p>\n
Gengan said that concerns had been raised by the existing tenants about 16 vacant shops. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe viability of the development has been severely compromised.\u201d <\/p>\n
A consultant had been appointed to survey why people were not shopping there. <\/p>\n
Pietermaritzburg shoppers who spoke to The Mercury for an earlier article said it was cheaper to take a taxi to town than to the mall, which was why they preferred to shop in the city centre. <\/p>\n
Gengan also briefed the council on the 17 development projects that the municipality was currently dealing with, and their status. Revised drawings were completed for the R300-million Edenvision private hospital development, and the sale agreement for the land was being amended, he said. <\/p>\n
The phase three expansion of the Liberty Midlands Mall had been delayed as the rates clearance certificate had been held up because of outstanding rates. <\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
However the construction of the Hayfields Hotel and the Freedom Square Tourism Hub was under way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sharika Regchand BILLIONS of rand in investment were in the pipeline for Pietermaritzburg, ranging from a private hospital to a hotel and shopping centres, a report handed yesterday to the Msunduzi municipality executive committee revealed. But it was not all good news. David Gengan, manager of investment promotion for the municipality, said the city\u2019s second-largest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-17928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"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\/17928","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17928\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}