It remains to be seen whether the sale of Baywest Mall will fall into old bad patterns or whether it will be just what the local community needs.
The sale of the Baywest Mall in PE will certainly have far-reaching implications. Only time will tell whether this sale ends up being a bad thing for the local economy or a good thing for further growth and development of the Nelson Mandela Bay region.
Is Baywest Mall’s sale good or bad news for the PE community?
Baywest Mall, located in Gqeberha (previously known as PE), is being put up for sale following Rebosis Property Fund’s entry into business rescue in August 2022.
Rebosis will also be letting go of other high-value properties like Hemingways Mall, Forest Hill Mall, Sunnypark Mall and Bloed Street Mall.
But, since this 87,000 square metre giant property is still the biggest mall in the entire Eastern Cape, this sale could have serious consequences for the surrounding communities.
Baywest Mall is home to more than 180 stores and it brands itself as an “Entertainment centre”, as well as a shopping destination.
However, if the mall is sold to developers who also experience the same problems that Rebosis did, the repercussions could be really bad for PE residents who rely on the mall to do their shopping and for the thousands of jobs that could be lost in the process.
The problem with Baywest Mall
Rebosis’s financial problems may be their own, but issues like increasing interest rates and decreasing spending, may just be transferred to the next developers that buy the property.
Stats SA recently reported that the March 2023 retail sales numbers are down 1.6 percent from the previous year. This does not bode well for new ventures in the retail industry right now.
It is not all bad news
If Baywest Mall lands in the right hands in this process, locals hope that this sale could be the starting point for further development out West.
Baywest Mall has been a massive draw for Gqeberha locals since it opened its doors.
Moreover, with hopes on the rise that a multi-million-rand investment by South African Breweries (SAB) will boost the local economy – this mall could serve as the anchor-point for further expansion in the Nelson Mandela Bay region.
The property could also change shape
With the final details of the Baywest Mall sale still far from resolved, many local residents have weighed in with their opinions about what they would like to happen to the property.
Some residents want the mall to remain as it has always been. But ideas like additional campuses for the Nelson Mandela University (NMU), lifestyle centres and even additional low-cost housing developments, have also garnered attention.
