With The Palms and the upcoming Circle
Mall, demand for retail shopping centres in Lekki seems to have just
been scratched as a recent independent demographic study has revealed
that there are still opportunities for investment in retail development
in that axis.
Lekki is one of the upscale neighbourhoods in Lagos that
has seen mass movement of people and businesses such that the axis is
today adjudged the fastest growing and developing residential and
commercial real estate destination in Nigeria. RMB Westport, a South Africa real estate
investment and development firm, which conducted the study, explained to
BusinessDay that within the
catchment area of its proposed Royal Gardens Mall on which construction
will start in September this year, to be completed in 24 months, there
is a 114,002 shopping population which has annual shopping spend of
USD$241.0 million.
The company is excited about the progressive growth in this area which the report has shown and pointed out that in 2011, the shopping population in this area was 95,240 with an annual spend of USD$179.7 million; in 2013, it was 101,525 people with USD$200.6 million; in
2016 the population will be 114.002 with USD$241.0 million while in
2019, the population of this area will jump to 127,017 with annual
shopping spend estimated at USD$281.7 million. “The forecast retail market demand in Royal Gardens’ catchment area for 2016 indicates a sustainable gross lettable area (GLA) of 36,438 square metres for a shopping mall that would function as a regional center”, Roy Hamlyn, RMB Westport’s Development Manager told BusinessDay, adding that the Royal
Gardens development was 30,124 square metres and would be completed in
December 2017 which indicates the sizable market potential of the
development.
Hamlyn noted that the Lekki-Epe
Expressway was a corridor of development and urban expansion of Lagos
where properties suitable for large scale commercial development were
scarce along the parts of this expressway that have in-place catchment
populations. The mall is aimed to be an accompaniment
of the Royal Gardens Estate which is located in an area of development
along the expressway and is being established as a housing estate for
middle and upper middle income residents. The estate, as a whole,
occupies approximately 150 hectares of land.
The Mall will be sitting on 9 hectares of land, facing
the Expressway and, according to Hamlyn, “the project site is a long
rectangular property that faces onto the expressway and is at the
entrance to the Royal Garden Estate”.
RMB Westport is also the developer of the
Circle Mall located strategically along the Lekki-Epe Expressway with
an eye-view distance from the Jakande Roundabout. It is the first of its
kind in Lagos with retail component which is the mall, and commercial
component, which is an office space adjacent the mall. It is a unique
concept in Nigeria, especially in Lagos and as the project manager put
it, “it is not something
that has been done before because, with this, you can have a commercial
experience within an office environment”.
“Circle Mall is approximately seven
kilometers from Royal Gardens. This places the project just inside our
designed secondary catchment area for a mall located at Royal Gardens.
The center has a GLA of approximately 20,000m2, making it about two
thirds the size of Royal Gardens Mall”, Hamlyn said.
Culled from Business Day.
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