Situated in Pemba, some 2 500km north of our Pretoria head office, Pemba Retail Centre is Atterbury’s first Mozambican development project. It is run in partnership with Tradehold Africa and local partners as part of Pemba Investment Company Limitada. Project manager Gerhard van der Westhuizen gives a preview into the progress of this exciting development
How far is the development at present?
Earthworks have been completed and the site was handed over to the contractor to proceed with the construction on 1 June 2016. The Retail Centre is scheduled to open mid-2017.
What are the highlights of the project?
Because of Atterbury and Tradehold’s joint experience in Africa, we have an advantage over most potential competitors. Many a South African developer has tried to do retail developments in Mozambique, with very little to no success. But we’ve paid our school fees; we’ve learnt lessons about enlisting the right local consultants and partners. It’s great to be able to bring something new to the area – there are approximately 200 000 people in Pemba with no formal retail offering, so people are extremely excited at the prospect.
So what does the retail landscape look like at the moment?
At present the people buy everything off the side of the road, and in tiny 200m² supermarkets where you can never get milk, bread and eggs in the same shop on the same day. We’re going to change all that with around 8 100m² of retail space. Shoprite will be the anchor tenant and their logistics chain will make it possible to stock everything all the time. The closest Shoprite at the moment is 200km away to the south.
Aside from Shoprite, what else will the mall offer?
We are targeting Mozambican national tenants – chemist, fashion retailers, electronics, that sort of mix.
In future, there will also be some office space as part of the retail centre. Atterbury Mauritius acquired the BAT building in Maputo, Mozambique in December 2015. The property consists of 3 937m² warehousing and 1 275m² offices making up the total 5 212m² industrial building. BAT is a global tobacco company with more than 200 brands sold in over 200 markets.
How many Atterbury people are on the ground in Pemba?
There are no Atterbury employees based in Mozambique. Most of the consultants in the team are South Africa-based but we do make use of some key local consultants. There is a lot of travel involved!
What was on the land before?
It was land on which an informal market was situated, with about 35 little shops. Our purchase of the land was contingent on it being unencumbered, and it was cleared with the help of the local authority within three months. The market is now situated elsewhere in town. There was also a municipal road running right through the site, which was closed. And only afterwards did we discover that there were adjacent properties that require access to their houses via our land, so this also required a bit of juggling and slicing off of a bit here and there before we could get going! You learn to go with the flow and deal with the challenges as they arise… any project in a foreign territory brings some unexpected surprises, almost daily!
