Sarit Centre in new expansion drive

Up market shopping mall, Sarit Centre, is on an expansion drive in a bid to reclaim its top position in Nairobi’s lucrative retail market.

Sarit Centre’s developers, Soma Properties Limited, are looking to embark on the third phase of the expansion which will see additional shops, a supermarket, exhibition halls and parking lots. “The proposed project comprises a 250,000 square feet of additional retail space to satisfy the increased demand for business activities,” read a notice by environmental regulator Nema in the Kenya Gazette dated September 11, 2015.

The expansion will also see construction of a multi-storey car parking silo to create more space while occupying minimal land acreage and an expanded exhibition hall for local and international events.

Opened in 1983, Sarit Centre is Kenya’s first shopping mall and in the past few years has seen intense competition with new entrants looking to tap into Kenya’s growing middle class.

With numerous global retail chains looking to set up shop in Kenya, property developers have been in a race to supply the demand for premium commercial space in urban areas.

The Westlands area is particularly strategic to developers owing to its proximity to both the Nairobi central business district and affluent neighbourhoods of Runda, Kileleshwa, Kitisuru and Kilimani.

The latest entrant into the market is Garden City’s mixed use development officially opened by Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero three days ago. At 32-acres and just off Nairobi’s Thika super highway, Garden City is East Africa’s largest shopping mall and is developed by sub-Saharan Africa’s private equity real estate investor Actis.

Some of the stores premised in the $250 million (Sh25 billion) mall include Nakumat, Game, bossini, City Walk among others. Other malls currently in development include the Rosslyn Riviera Mall and Two Rivers mixed development being constructed by listed investment firm Centum and set for official opening later this year. —Frankline Sunday