Suburban
TENANTS have started moving in at the refurbished Greendale Shopping Centre previously popularly known as PaGomba.
Diana Nherera Suburban Reporter
Greendale Shopping Centre managing director and head architect Mr Zaid Jassae said 12 shops have opened following the completion of the first phase of the renovations, bringing the total number of new shops at the complex to 13.
Those that have opened include Dash Supply which specialises in hospitality catering, Jodan Electronics which sells televisions, laptops, phones and gadgets and sports shoes and sports apparel trader Sneakerhead.
The other shops are Alechi, a fresh fruit and vegetables retailer, a chicken grill restaurant Lekker, ladies apparel shop Beaches to Baobabs and a baby shop Wild Child.
Leading pharmacy retailer Kenlink Pharmacy has also opened a new branch at Greendale shopping Centre so is diversified agri-business company Interfresh Zimbabwe which runs a number of subsidiaries including Interspan, Interfoods Manufacturing, Intercorp, Interfreight, Wholesale Fruiterers, Marlon Trading, Mazoe Citrus Estates and Mazoe Flowers, which has established their head office at the complex.
Xongile is offering selling jewellery and Aldo products which are a favourite of trendy shoppers looking for fashionable shoes, handbags and accessories.
Atd Men’s which sells men’s suits and apparel as well as linen and home decor shop Atd Home have also opened under phase one of the remade Greendale Shopping Centre.
Meat retailer, The Butchery, had already moved in before the other tenants.
Phase two of the renovations, expected to be complete by May this year, will see the establishment of food court with 16 food outlets.
The new owners of Greendale Shopping Centre Young Blood Investments Private Limited have invested US$500 000 in refurbishing the huge complex which had remained idle for several years with only a few businesses which included a service station operating.
Greendale Shopping Centre is located at the corner of Coronation Avenue and Cunningham Road in Greendale.
Spurred by the potential the big complex offers given its strategic location, the new investors have been remaking the complex which is also expected to have an anchor tenant, believed to be one of the leading supermarket chains in Zimbabwe.
The renovations have seen the remake of the several buildings at the shopping complex to create upmarket outlets to house specialist shops.
Greendale residents living along Coronation Avenue and Cunningham Road and the surrounding areas were having to drive or take public transport to Kamfinsa Shopping Centre or Chisipite Shopping Centre to do their shopping because the PaGomba shopping complex had been neglected for a number of years now with the only functioning businesses at the complex being a fuel station and a gym.
But that situation has changed with Young Blood Investments Private Limited investment making the shopping centre alive.
Mandara residents have been wishing the owners of Mandara shopping centre could also renovate the place and make it functional following the publication by this newspaper of a story on the refurbishments being undertaken at Greendale shopping centre.
Two years ago Mandara residents told Suburban that Mandara shopping centre has been idle for more than two decades.
“Residents of this suburb have nowhere to shop and have to board kombis to go to Kamfinsa yet this area has a shopping centre,” a Mandara resident told Suburban in 2020.The shopping centre is reportedly owned by a business person who is also a resident of that suburb.
“The (business person) does not have intentions of having the shops functional and benefiting this community.
“There is a block of 11 shops, five small and six big ones.
“A borehole was drilled by council but the concerned business person does not want anyone there.
“If he doesn’t want any shops to be operating there, why can’t that space be developed into flats, for example?
“We are also appealing that there be a new law that deals with buildings to do with the public so that they serve the public and not individual interests,” said another resident.
