$9m in the pipeline for Groot Community new development Namibia

Artist’s impression of the Groot Community new development Namibia

The Groot Property Group is developing an upscale diverse community, named Groot, near Etosha National Park in the Kunene region of Namibia, the industrial development company said on Monday.

In a media release, the company said the Groot community will comprise more than 2,100 commercial retail units, with light and heavy industrial parks and more than 160,000 residential housing units.

Information available on the company’s website states the development will occupy more than 2,2m square feet of exceptional interior shopping mall and entertainment space, and 300 acres of an upper-class exterior town centre with pedestrian-friendly streetscapes, open-air gathering spaces, fountains, children's parks, theme parks, medical facilities, educational institutions, luxury hotels, fine dining restaurants, and office spaces.

Five million ordinary shares and 2m preference shares, of which 80,000 ordinary shares have already been issued, will be floated to select investors in an effort to raise more than $9mn to help finance the company’s initial green scheme projects for the development of Groot.

The company said the total budget for the complete planning, development, engineering and construction of Groot is about N$6bn.

The company plans to raise the total budget through a combination of debt and equity financing –through a network of connected financial institutions in the US and Europe – while Standard Bank will finance 50% of the total budget for the Groot development.

"The market scope for Groot, and all of business-cum-industrial entities it will create, will inevitably be not just Namibia with its limited population size, but also the various Southern African Development Community member countries bordering on Namibia," Simon Kapenda, Chief Economist of Groot Property Group, said.