KNYSNA NEWS – Residents of Knysna's northern areas celebrated the opening of phase one of the new R200m Kunjani Concordia Mall mixed-use development on Thursday 30 March, bringing to an end a roughly 11-year wait for a shopping centre to be developed on the site.
The grand opening, which was attended by various state delegates and corporate investors, commenced with a performance by the Chris Nissen Primary School choir to bless the day ahead.
The air was filled with a lively spirit as the crowd enjoyed a live DJ and Kunjani Concordia Mall merchandise was handed out to eager kids to commemorate the mall's opening.
Kunjani Concordia Mall is a development project of Latitude Properties, led by CEO Harry Pretorius.
He says they are very proud to be involved in the community and look forward to establishing a long-lasting relationship.
The development of Kunjani Mall started in 2021 and is a collaboration between Latitude Properties and EPCM Holdings.
Municipal council members alongside developers from Latitude Properties. Photo: Zoë Fick
The mall is the first phase in a three-part development process that will run its course over the next couple of years. Kunjani Mall is currently host to Shoprite, Vodacom, Ackermans, Pep and Relay Jeans, and hopes to welcome more retailers in the future.
The mall is significant for the community, providing residents with closer access to resources they would otherwise have to travel further for.
In the spirit of giving back, a soup kitchen was operating outside of Shoprite for the opening.
The day was further commemorated with a charity handover of R5 000 to Chris Nissen Primary School as well as a handover of groceries worth R1 000 to Jaydine's Day Care.
Knysna Mayor Ndoda Aubrey Tsengwa was present to cut the opening ribbon and deliver a vote of thanks to the community as well as the developers of the mall. It is projected that the mall will create a surge of business and job opportunities in the Concordia area with 200 permanent jobs already having arisen from its development.
Knysna Mayor Ndoda Aubrey Tsengwa (centre) cuts the ceremonial ribbon during the mall opening.
Excited kids enjoying the festivities of the day. Photo: Zoë Fick
Knysna Mayor Ndoda Aubrey Tsengwa addresses the crowd that attended the opening.
Taking another look at Kunjani:
Phase one of the R200m mixed-use development, Kunjani Concordia Mall, opened last week, but it's been far from a simple journey to get there.
Knysna's "Northern Areas" are made up of the larger White Location, Concordia, Dam se Bos, Khayalethu and Nekkies suburbs, and those encompass a host of smaller "mini-suburbs" such as Robololo, Bloemfontein, Bongani and Dameni, among others.
These areas have always faced significant difficulty when it comes to accessing major shopping stores and retailers which have, until now, only been found in the Knysna CBD.
A single trip in a regular taxi from White Location and Nekkies to the CBD costs R14, and from Concordia to the CBD it costs R16. In smaller vehicles where you might travel by yourself, known as "specials", prices range between R60 and R80. People often have to use the specials if they have particularly large grocery hauls.
While to most it might not seem like much at first glance, if you double that for a round-trip and then multiple times throughout the month - over and above the daily commute to work - it all adds up to quite the cost. Issues like these have led to cries for a shopping centre in the Northern Areas for years, and in 2012 hopes soared when developers Variflex Trading acquired the property on which Kunjani Concordia Mall now lies.
A R40m "shopping complex" was announced, and the hope reached fever pitch. But this development never materialised with constant back and forth between Variflex and Knysna Municipality over a vast number of issues, with one of the final nails in the coffin being the failure to reach a service agreement in late 2018.
Variflex ultimately sold the property in 2019, and by 2021 developers Latitude Properties had secured the property and began development on Kunjani Mall Concordia. At a sod-turning ceremony in July 2022 they announced the mall would open in November 2022. Now, after a five-month delay, phase one has finally opened.
While the vast majority of the community is overjoyed at the opening of the shopping mall, there is still some unhappiness over the name of the centre.
This is because the mall is in fact not in Concordia but in Robololo, which forms part of White Location. It might be a minor detail, but is still worth noting.
Overall, the Kunjani Mall and mixed-use development that will follow, will be of great value to the community and will undoubtedly change the lives of its surrounding residents much for the better. – Blake Linder
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