Looking Back

The Ballito Lifestyle Centre this month celebrates its 10th anniversary. And although 10 years is not that long ago, most people, including owners Bruce and and Paul, can barely remember a time when the Lifestyle Centre didn’t exist.
The centre, which started out as a plan to open a new Super Spar, turned into one of the biggest decisions either of the Rencken brothers had ever made.  According to Bruce and Paul, they were initially approached by developers (as retailers at the time), to open a Super Spar. “Then a different developer offered us involvement in a syndicate and, finally, we were offered a fifty percent partnership,” says Bruce. On the day they were supposed to sign the partnership agreement (while the land was still all sugar cane and there were absolutely no services or infrastructure in place), Bruce told the developers that they had decided to do it on their own instead.
“It was a big decision for us to go on our own but, as retailers, we thought we understood shopping centres better than developers, and so we thought it would be easier to go it alone,” says Paul.
But easy it was not. “I think our complete ignorance played in our favour, because had we have known what we were doing, I don’t think we would have gone through with it,” laughs Bruce. Initially, the centre was going to comprise the Super Spar and a few other convenience stores, such as the Tops liquor store, the pharmacy and a few other essentials.
“We didn’t have a grandiose, 50-year-plan. The process just sort of evolved from us opening a nice, convenience centre to what the Lifestyle Centre is today.”
Even from the beginning, the interest was there. Bruce says what started out as an 8500m² project, literally doubled in size to 16500m² in the first two weeks. But, despite the fact that they had the tenant interest, it wasn’t as easy as everything just falling into place from then on.
They took over 30 000 photographs during their ‘look and learn’ trips to shopping centres throughout South Africa. “We looked at both outside and indoor stores and sourced as many different ideas as we could.” Although Paul initially wanted to go with an indoor centre, they agreed that the convenience aspect of having a strip centre was too important.
“Bruce suggested that a strip would be better from a convenience point of view, and he was right. When it comes to convenience shopping at places like the pharmacy and bottle store, people want to be able to pop in and grab the one or two things they need. Many centres put their supermarket at the back of the centre so people are forced to walk through the entire centre, but we didn’t want to do that. We wanted the Super Spar to be right at the front, easily accessible and convenient. Our average shopper comes to the centre between three and four times a week.”
Obtaining the right mix of tenants has always been vitally important to them and, according to Paul, Bruce made it his mission to get certain tenants on board. “Bruce decided in the beginning what tenants he wanted and then made sure he went out and got them.” Sometimes this meant going back a few times and being persistent, but it paid off in the end.
The Lifestyle Centre now has a strong fashion offering and this is something Bruce says they will definitely continue to focus on. “We are really lucky to be in a position now where we have a demand for space at the centre. We are able to hand pick the right tenants for the Ballito market.”
Both agree that being the landlord and tenant has made them more able to understand the needs of their tenants and allowed them to make more balanced decisions. They say the relationship between the retailers themselves is also a symbiotic one, as they all rely on each other for success.
Looking back at the growth of the Lifestyle Centre in phases, Paul says he can’t believe how the centre has evolved. “The second phase went up to the Tops bottle store and the third up to Toyota. The fourth phase was a big one, including Reggies, Mr Price Home, Foschini, Spur and Primi, Tekkie Town and Mr Price Sport (as well as the undercover parking). The fifth, and final, stage was the Edgars block.”
So, what have they learnt over the past 10 years? “
A lot! Building and running a shopping centre is far more hard work, more complex and more dynamic than I could ever have thought. I totally underestimated it!I thought it was easy – just build a centre and collect rent,” laughs Bruce, “it has been a completely life-changing, fantastic, all-consuming project.”
Paul agrees. “We just thought this was going to be our ‘retirement thing’, haha. There is so much day-to-day, hands-on work required if you want to run a good, successful centre. Retail property is an every day working project.”
Bruce says the pace at which retail is changing is drastic and continual. “It’s a dynamic, changing industry and the changes are quick and constant. Retail stores used to have a 10-to-15-year lifespan, now it’s three to four years.”
Asked whether they ever thought the Lifestyle Centre would become anything close to what it is today, Bruce says definitely not. “We knew Ballito was growing and that if we didn’t do it someone else would. But we could never have guessed this. I think in terms of the growth of the North Coast over the past 10 years, along with our retail offering and the schooling, much of Ballito’s growth can be accredited to big residential estates like Zimbali and Simbithi who have done a huge amount of marketing and helped create the perception of Ballito being one of the most desired destinations to live.”
Paul says, as owners, they have been lucky to have great managers running both the stores and the centre. “We have all grown together. We don’t want to be a huge shopping centre. I think we have identified where we want to be and now we will just continue to keep the tenant mix in line with what the North Coast market needs.”