Platz Am Meer Open

The first shopping mall along Namibia’s coast, the Swakopmund Waterfront “Platz am Meer”, officially opened its doors to the public yesterday morning after a construction period of just more than two years. The mall forms part of the first phase of the development, the construction of the upper-class apartments will continue.

A stampede of visitors can be expected at the new waterfront shop-ping mall “Platz am Meer” over the weekend and the coming days, as many coastal residents are curious what the complex has to offer. Over the past few days the developer Safari Investments had to rush with the finishing touches to open the mall on time. A symbolic, official opening with high-level dignitaries will take place at a later stage.
Although the mall opened its doors to the public, some shops are still busy moving in and will only open during the course of next month. The first to open was the supermarket Checkers. Lessees that opened their doors yesterday include Woolworths, Signature Cosmetics, Christian Mobile Literature, Biltong den, KFC, Crazy store, VetSmart, Ackermans, Pep home, Pep Stores, Cape Union Mart, CNA, Studio 88, Shoe City, Clicks, Edgars, Avairy coffee shop, FNB, Uschi & Diane and Seeff.
Other shops will open during the course of the next few days. These include Novacambios, Nanodaog, Execuspecs, Jaiting Sushi, Streethouse, Cross Trainer and the Healthy way clinic. Come end October Milky lane, Debonairs, Steers, Fish aways, Monsieur Collections, The Vault Emporium, Pandora, Mugg & Bean, My Republik, Liquor city, Bluegrass Restaurant, French Cuisine, Cellulink, Asian Sun Restaurant, Bank Windhoek, Standard Bank and a Car Wash will also have opened their doors.
Many shoppers visited the mall yesterday morning, with more and more visitors seeing the “Platz am Meer” in the afternoon. “This development is necessary to the town of Swakopmund,” said Swakopmund Constituency Councilor Juuso Kambueshe while walking through the mall. Ilse Marais from Safari Investments was very happy with the first day. “People are very positive,” she said to namib times.
The Small Boat Harbour will be in use from this weekend onwards. If all small boats will be utilizing this new feature instead of the Mole, is not yet set in stone. “There is no directive at the present moment,” said municipal spokesperson Ailie Gebhardt to namib times. According to her the safety for the use of the boats will be appraised with the assistance of the small craft users and NamPort Directorate of Maritime Affairs.
The mall itself is one of the biggest developments Swakopmund has experienced to date, with massive amounts of man hours being poured in. According to Safari Investments an average of 350 workers were present on the site each day working a total of about 920 00 man hours. For the development a total of 15 866 m³ of concrete was poured, while 2 764 951 bricks and 135 565 bags of cement were used.
The mall also features a couple of “firsts” for the Erongo Region, including Single Roof tiles (bituminous product imported from Belgium), a Parking Water proofing system, exposed carpentry (European Spruce) and Walk Ways Translucent sheets (Honeycomb system imported from Europe).