February 6, 2005

By Graham Norris

The R600 million Capegate shopping centre near Brackenfell is expected to attract 40 000 to 50 000 people a day in the first week after its opening on March 17.

Timothy Irvine, the regional general manager for Nedbank Property Finance, which financed the developers, Jaco Odendaal, Ernst Hartwig and their team, said this week that in their experience, they had not seen a regional retail centre attract as much interest from tenants.

"The demand for space in this 55 000m2 shopping centre was so strong that the leasing team was able to leave certain of its options open until late in the day to achieve exactly the tenant mix they wanted."

"Odendaal said recently that there is not one tenant he would like to have in the centre who is not there."

Odendaal confirmed this, saying that his 160 tenants now include all the major food chains, eight state-of-the-art cinemas, all the major fashion, home and accessories traders, all four national banks, and a wide range of restaurants, coffee shops and takeaways. There will also be a children's play outlet, Jimmy Jungle.

Odendaal said the strong points of the Stauch Vorster Architects design for Capegate are that:

There is an excellent 50/50 balance between the 3 500 indoor and outdoor parking bays.

The access and departure routes from the centre, via six entrances and four exits, many leading off the N1, will be easier and quicker than in most South African centres.

The double-level compact design, with all levels linked by escalators, will minimise the walking distances from parking to the shops.

"In our research and previous investigations," said Odendaal, "we found that excessive walking distances were the main complaint about most major retail centres."

The interior design by Lionel Levine Architects, with five strategically placed glass-roofed atria, will be fresh and uncompromisingly upmarket.

The interior designs, says Odendaal, make excellent use of pale grey porcelain tiles, stainless steel and glass facades and white bulkheads against which the shop facades themselves stand out prominently.

Odendaal said that he had visited many retail centres over the past ten years in Europe and the United States and had always tried to understand what made them work well or alternatively, why they were failures.

"Today's shopper," he said, "has become a very sophisticated person.

"Through magazines, television and overseas travel he or she has learned to appreciate the latest overseas trends and is prepared to pay for them. This does not mean that all are suitable for South Africa but we have done our best to assimilate those that we believe will work for us."

The catchment area for the new centre will include many of the northern suburbs (Brackenfell, Kuils River, Durbanville, Welgemoed) as well as nearby Boland towns such as Paarl, Wellington and Stellenbosch.

The centre, said Irvine, could even attract shoppers from as far afield as Ceres, Tulbagh and Malmesbury.

Odendaal gave an assurance that the opening week would not be "a jamboree".

"We are launching an upmarket centre," he said, "and the launch programme will be in keeping with that."

For further information contact Jaco Odendaal on 021 930 4009.