Feet flock to Canary Walk
After only 10 months of construction, customers can now enjoy convenient shopping at the city centre near major passenger terminals such as Buscor and the taxi rank.
MBOMBELA – The atmosphere of excitement was tangible as the ribbon was cut at the official opening of Shoprite at Canary Walk on May 27.
After only 10 months of construction, customers can now enjoy convenient shopping at the city centre near major passenger terminals such as Buscor and the taxi rank.
Along with Shoprite’s opening, Shoprite Liquor, Rage, Ubuntu Fabrics, Cash Crusaders, Barko Financial Services and Optirama also opened their doors as part of the completion of the first phase of construction, with four shops in the pipeline. The second phase, which consists of around 3 000 square metres, boasts 24 shops to let, but will only open at the end of October when construction is expected to be completed.
As soon as both phases are done, this 9 000 square metre “Oasis in the CBD” will offer a variety of 35 stores.
The idea was born when developer, Mr Fred Kinnear, bought the premises three years ago. His main aim is still to accomplish an upgrade in the CBD.
Canary Walk promises not to be just another mall. It’s an office park, shopping centre and a warehouse which aims to raise the standard of the area in the CBD by setting an example of how neat, safe and convenient a shopping park in the city’s centre could be.
Kinnear hopes that this will encourage other shopping centres in the vicinity also to upgrade and thereby increase the property value of the whole area. “Why should this beautiful part of the city go to ruin?” he asks.
Not only is he trying to achieve this, but in this process, hundreds of work opportunities are created. “It’s a beautiful six-hectare property in the middle of the city,” says Kinnear. “We already have the feet here with the bus stop and terminus, why not just build a proper mall?”
Many franchise owners agreed to open stores here and the mall started to fill up. “There is still an opportunity for potential tenants in phase one and two,” says Mr Jan Strydom, group manager of Canary Walk. “The quality of the shops, compared to the affordability of the rent is unbeatable,” he adds.
With 24-hour surveillance and uninterrupted power supply, this is definitely the area’s one-stop shopping destination. Even though there will be an array of stores, Shoprite will be the cornerstone of Canary Walk.
Shoprite’s trading hours are weekdays from 07:00 to 19:00, 08:00 to 18:00 on Saturdays and 08:00 to 17:00 on Sundays and public holidays.
