Young, black and upwardly mobile businessmen are gradually gaining something of a foothold in what was traditionally white-owned business spaces.

Robert Walton, MD of Metropolitan Property Services, whose company owns 100% of Village Walk, 100% of Midlife Centre and 42% of Tyger Valley in Cape Town, says black tenancy in these upmarket malls has increased by 70% over the past three years.

Five years ago Village Walk had no black tenants. It now has four black-owned businesses, mostly hairdressers and boutiques.

One such business owner is television presenter Carol Bouwer, who owns a clothing boutique at Village Walk. Carol Bouwer Designs was opened in 2001.

Bouwer says her reason for setting up shop was to pull in middle-to upper-income blacks working in Sandton's financial district.

However, most of her clients come from as far as Pretoria, seeking her skills in coordinating a corporate look for them.

In addition, Bouwer sells clothes with an ethnic feel, mostly to tourists.

Hyde Park is another upmarket shopping mall where the number of black business tenants is increasing.

Thozi Skosana, in her late 30s, has owned kiddies boutique Jacadi for the past five years.

Cynthia Msiza, 30, has owned an upmarket shoe shop, Rodeo, for the past three years, where one will not find a pair of shoes for less than R900.

At Canal Walk in Cape Town, Maggie Rowley, a representative of the mall, says black tenancy has almost doubled since the mall opened in 2000.

Ivan Pachonick, director of retail for JHI Properties, says there is a definite increase in the take-up of tenancies and retail space by black businessmen.

This, he adds, varies from centre to centre and from location to location.

Business Times