Kenya has witnessed a surge in the number of investors who are putting their money in high end malls across the country. Fusion Capital, a private equity firm, is constructing a Ksh2 billion mall in Meru that is going to be the first and only mall in the county.
Here is an inside look at Greenwood City Mall and its investors as told by WoK.
Greenwood City Mall
Greenwood City Mall is a project owned by Fusion Capital and is under the Meru Greenwood Park. The project will consist of a state of the art shopping mall, apartments and office blocks which are being constructed under the land that was occupied by the Pig and Whistle hotel as reported by Nation. The hotel which was the oldest in Meru town and once served as the home of the first colonial district commissioner was demolished to pave way for the construction of the project. Meru Greenwood Park involves a four storey mall covering 25,000 square meters, Grade A office blocks, 50 two and three bedroom apartments and a 240 slot public parking space situated in the seven acres piece of land located along River Kathita.
Construction of the mall began in 2016 when Fusion Capital raised its first Ksh430 million through the Development Real Estate Investment Trust (D-REIT) that saw it achieve 38 percent subscription target against the minimum target of 50 percent. This led to the delay of its construction and pushed the owners to drop D-REIT in favor of private funding for the development.
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In June 2021, Fusion Capital announced that it had secured a Ksh800 million funding from private investors that will see the mall being completed in the first quarter of 2022. The company revealed that the money was raised from local and international investors mostly from the United Kingdom and Finland.
The project, which is 61 percent complete, consists of a supermarket, restaurant, apartment, shops, banking halls and children arcade.
“This is a follow-on investment from the original investment of about Sh463.5 million ($4.3 million), hence total funding of about Sh1.2 billion ($12 million),” Fusion Capital chief executive officer Daniel Kamau said.
Currently, the mall is in its final stages and has already achieved over 36 percent occupancy by East African leading brands including Naivas Supermarket, Optica and Mimosa Pharmacy among many others.
“Work is on high end gear at our Greenwood City Mall, Meru with the parking areas currently being cabro’ed, the anchor tenant Naivas Supermarket proceeding swiftly with fit-out while the interior décor is becoming eye-catchy by the day,” read a recent social media post by Fusion Capital.
Fusion Capital
Fusion Capital is a Private Equity Firm focused on Real Estate Investment and Fund Management. The company was founded in 2006 and has its operations across the East African countries. In Kenya some of the real estate projects owned by the company include Flaming towers, 4th Avenue towers, Marina Creekside luxury apartments, Montey apartments and Graceland Athi River. It also owns Kigali heights in Rwanda and Goldmark property in Uganda. The company has Phil Goodwin as the Executive Chairman, Daniel Kamau as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), James Maclean as Executive Director, Costa Malai as non-executive director and Engineer Peter Njeru as a non-executive director.
