More than 15 000 shoppers visited the mall during the course of the opening weekend. The mall serves a wide area that includes Grahamstown, from where a large proportion of the shoppers arrived, as well as Alexandria, Bushmans River, Kenton-on-Sea, Kasouga, Bathurst and Kleinemonde. The long-term sustainability of the centre is of course still to be established, but forming part of a planned 74ha site that will eventually accommodate a total of 456 housing units, should certainly assist. Rosehill Estate,  will eventually include up-market homes, two group housing projects, a retirement village and, specialist medical suites for the new private hospital, a Motor City and Value Mart

As well as being the Ndlambe municipal area’s first big league shopping experience, with most of South Africa’s top retailers having taken space in the 13 000 square metre trading area, Rosehill Mall is set to become a central feature of social life in the area. Visitors were delighted with its spectacular beach themed food court, cinemas, and tree lined main mall.

With the emphasis on aesthetics, the mall has been landscaped at a cost of R2million, including 261 indigenous trees, 32 large palms and 45 926 other plants.

The 780 parking bays that serve the mall were packed to capacity. All the retailers exceeded their turnover targets, and the landlords were inundated with inquiries for the few remaining untenanted spaces.

The stores include a 3 000 m2 Super Spar anchor store, Woolworths, Truworths, Foschini, Markham, Miladies, Sportscene, Ackermans, Clicks, American Swiss Jewellers, Tekkie Town and the Crazy Store. 

Many came for the day and ended their visit with a meal in the food court and a viewing of either High School Musical or the new James Bond movie at the centre’s two cinemas – the first in Port Alfred.

‘The turnout shows a huge pent-up demand for good retail in this area,’  said Prosperito MD Gerhardt Jooste. ‘Right now, the mall offers the only top notch, broad based shopping experience for 125km around, and currently exceeds that of Grahamstown, from where we expect to continue getting strong support.’