East R3.5-billion massive ‘Tombstone’ mall to face resurrection this week

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19-07-2023
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Pretoria Rekord
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75 percent of the creditors will need to vote in favour of the proposed BRP that could see the eyesore in De Villebois roads and Delmas finally rescued from being slabs of concrete that are not operated from after plans on homing retail stores in 2009.

The future of the abandoned R3.5-million Sharemax Villa Retail “ghost mall” in the east of Pretoria will be decided this week.

This as creditors get to vote on whether they approve of the plan Thumos Properties 1 (Pty) Ltd, which holds the majority stake in the building, has in mind for the site.

Voting commences on July 20 when the creditors meet.

The mall, located on the corner of De Villebois and Delmas roads in Wingate Park, on about 130 000m2 piece of land.

In total, 78 homes had to make way for this gigantic mall.

Operations, however, stalled in 2011 when construction came to a halt due to finance and litigation issues.

The meeting will vote for or against, Thumos’ proposed business rescue plan.

Corporate Business Rescue spokesperson Zander Insel said the creditors will have to consider the proposed plan and vote on it.

Insel said 75% of the creditors would have to vote in favour of the plan.

The unfinished Villa Mall in the east of Pretoria. Photo: Reitumetse Mahope

Half of this 75% must be independent stakeholders.

The “ghost mall” has been the focus of litigation proceedings for several years. It was also controversial because thousands of elderly pensioners poured their money into the Sharemax investment scheme to build what was supposed to be one of the largest shopping centres in the city.

However, the funding model was found to have contravened banking laws in the country.

Construction started in 2009 and investors were told that by 2011 the megastructure would be unveiled.

Since, various options have been tabled in an attempt to resolve the issues facing the mall.

These options have been considered and included in the proposed business rescue plan. Talks have been ongoing since March.

Villa was placed in business rescue on March 15, 2021.

One of the options is that Villa seeks to purchase the site in a bid to obtain ownership of all assets relating to the property such as lifts, escalators, air-conditioning and building materials and further undivided share.

The deal proposes that Villa contribute R20-million for the settlement of rates and taxes owed to the Tshwane metro and an estimated at R100-million for bulk services.

Should the deal not go through, the site could potentially be auctioned.

According to the plan, Villa will have the sole right to request an amount higher than R300-million but lower than R700-million for the auction phase.

This is not the first attempt to resurrect the R3.5-billion mall, on which work was halted in 2010 after Thumos ran into funding problems.

In 2021, construction company GD Irons took the mall owners to court over R500-million in outstanding fees.

“In 2010, the project ran into funding issues and funding dried up. Although there were contractors on-site because there was an occupation deadline, there was no funding with which to complete the construction,” the court papers read.

The funding problems were attributed to “challenges” the mall owners had with the investment company, Brookfield Investments.

Since then, GD Irons tried to recoup outstanding amounts and previously launched an application for liquidation against the mall owners in an attempt to get the money but failed.

The Pretoria high court in recently ruled that Thumos should pay GD Irons about R500-million in outstanding fees.