The demolition would mean that a significant portion of the R56m invested in the recently completed refurbishment of The Mall has been lost, and the property's value would take a dive.

The court has ordered the demolition of the newly extended entrance of The Mall, including space occupied by Café Nescafé and Clockwise.

The court action was triggered by a complaint made by the owner of Cradock Heights, a property next to The Mall at the corner of Cradock and Tyrwhitt avenue. The complaint was mainly that The Mall has been extended into a space of Cradock avenue that was earmarked for pedestrian transport.

Cenprop director Charles Ryan said The Mall's objective was to create pedestrian flows which were easy, welcoming, lively and customer friendly. Cenprop intends appealing against the court order.

The court order came when Cenprop was preparing to wind up and its shareholders were lining up to cash in on the proposed sale of the group's property assets including The Mall which has already drawn the interest of two potential investors.

One investor, Hyprop, offered about R300m for The Mall which had been packaged with an adjoining office block, JHI House.

Another property loan stock company, Acucap, announced intentions to make a counter offer, which it said would be substantially higher than Hyprop's offer.

It was hoped the two bids would trigger a price war for the asset, which would have benefited Cenprop's shareholders. The court order could reverse all that.

It could also add to the number of value destroying situations that shareholders have been exposed to.

A few months ago some shareholders expressed concern about the re-evaluation of Cenprop's assets following the decision to wind up. The re-evaluation had shaved off about R136m of the Cenprop property assets.