The largest mall in the Eastern Cape (EC), Baywest Mall in Port Elizabeth, officially opened its doors last month.
The mall has a footprint of 90,000 m² and shops occupying about 64,000 m² of the mall opened to the public, with the rest expected to open in the next three months.
The mall, a JV development between Abacus Asset Management and the Billion Group, has cost the JV R1.7-billion in construction, with a further R300-million dedicated to the development of the road network around the mall.
Commending the work put in to establish the mall, Eastern Cape Premier Phumulo Masualle added that the mall would create employment for people working in the mall and also enable more businesses to provide services for the mall and its surrounding areas.
“The mall is an indication of how we, as a province, will work together to alleviate poverty and create more jobs for our people. This is a good display of what the public and private sectors can do by collaborating to address societal needs,” he explained.
“More than 75% of the workforce was contracted from Port Elizabeth, about 4,000 construction workers were employed during construction of the mall and eight million bricks were laid,” said Baywest co-chairperson Jaco Odendaal.
He added that, as more shops were scheduled to open, more workers were expected to be employed. Construction of 500 residential units and a lifestyle facility were also scheduled for construction.
