Metroplex Shopping Mall in Naalya has been sold off to Gateway Delta, a company based in Mauritius for redevelopment.
This has been confirmed by Knight Frank Uganda which used to market and manage the mall.
“The major redevelopment of the Metroplex shopping mall will commence shortly with the intended reopening of all phases of the development in April 2020,” Knight Frank said in a statement.
Addressing journalists, the Head of Retail at Knight Frank Marc Du Toit said the mall whose redevelopment is to commence soon will reopen in 2020 as a hypermarket store hosting diverse leisure, entertainment and fashion stores among others, something that will change the retail landscape of Naalya, Kiwatule, Namugongo and Kampala at large.
The redevelopment, according to him will cost an estimated $21 million (about Shs 77bn).
Toit said that the deal would have gone through earlier but was delayed by uncertainty about the Land and Tenants Bill 2018 that sought to restrict rents in dollars.
In a report last week, parliament rejected the proposal, which gave investors assurances. The mall was previously owned by Metroplex Mall Ltd, a company owned by a host of Indian families.
The mall has let table area of 13000sq meters. The area, however, had struggled to attract clients with Shoprite closing its outlet there in 2015. Still in 2015, the Metroplex Shopping Mall Limited sued Shoprite for terminating the tenancy agreement. The case went in favour of the mall.
Cineplex cinema still offered life to the mall that was once touted as one of Kampala’s one stop shopping complexes. An employee at Knight Frank Uganda described the state of the mall as “[it] has been dead”. It only had the cinema and the South African clothing retailer Woolworth as the only worthy clients.
The sale comes after a French supermarket Carrefour announced that it will open an outlet there in February 2020.
The new owner is also expected to put a new access road off Kyaliwajjala-Naalya road to ease accessibility from all corners. Gateway Delta is a private real estate development company.
The amount paid for the mall hasn’t been disclosed. There are unconfirmed rumours that Omar Mandela, the proprietor of the popular Cafe Javas chain restaurant may also open up an outlet there to cater for the neighbourhood.
