Private equity firm Fusion Capital expects the construction of Greenwood City Mall in Meru to be complete by the end of this month.
The firm said that the mall is now 95 per cent complete with final touches being done on the exterior and gatehouse.
“We are looking to open probably in about a month. So, we have got the anchor tenant, Naivas on-site fully fitted,'' Fusion Capital Real Estate executive director, James Maclean said.
He added that they have signed up several heads of terms and leases with other key businesses locally and regionally including Optica and Goodlife.
“There will be kind of a soft launch and we will start to open the doors for business by the end of this month and then we look to a proper launch by December or January 2023,” Maclean said.
The construction of Meru Mall, a mixed-use urban development that started in 2015, on the edge of Meru Town, is to be delivered in three phases, with the mall being first, followed by the office block and apartments as the second and third phases respectively.
The mall, which was to be completed in 2017, was delayed after shareholders dropped an earlier plan to raise funding through Development Real Estate Investment Trust (D-Reit) in favour of cash from private investors.
Last year, Fusion Capital raised Sh800 million for the completion of the mall.
This followed the original investment of about Sh463.5 million, hence total funding of about Sh1.2 billion.
D-Reit is a listed collective investment instrument that allows investors to pull capital to develop large-scale real estate properties.
The entire development boasts a 160,000 square feet (sqft) mall, a 6-floor Grade-A office block, and 53 executive apartments.
“So, we are still having very few spaces left, just above 60 per cent occupancy and we hope by December we should be hitting 70-80 per cent occupancy if not full,'' Fusion Capital Sales and Marketing manager Kevin Sanya said.
He added that they have already received an occupation certificate hence encouraging more businesses to take up space in what will be the first Grade A Mall in the Mount Kenya region.