SA's best shopping mall revealed at the Spectrum Awards

Mall of the North in Polokwane scoops the prestigious Spectrum Retail Design Development Award (RDDA)..

Mall of the North in Polokwane, Canal Walk Shopping Centre in Cape Town, Cape Union Mart Adventure Centre at Canal Walk and Supercare Cleaning Services at Paarl Mall have all claimed top honours at the annual South African shopping centre industry awards.

The Spectrum Awards recognise excellence, innovation and service across four categories which underpin the retail centre sector in South Africa. An initiative of the South African Council of Shopping Centres (SACSC), finalists for the Spectrum Awards comprise winners of the regional Special Star Retailer and Service Provider Awards, the Footprint Marketing Awards and the Retail Design and Development Awards (RDDA).

“Retail plays a vital role in the SA economy and shopping centres are at the heart of this significant economic activity. Furthering excellence in retail is of wide benefit and represents vast positive outcomes for consumers, retailers, shopping centres, service providers and the economy in general,” says Amanda Stops, General Manager of SACSC.

Mall of the North in Polokwane, Limpopo, scooped the prestigious Spectrum Retail Design Development Award, much to the delight of architect MDS Architecture and the centre’s joint owners and developers, JSE-listed Resilient Property Income Fund, Flanagan & Gerard Property Development & Investment and Moolman Group. This is the second consecutive year in which the team of MDS and Flanagan & Gerard have clinched this award.

The Spectrum RDDAs recognise exceptional shopping centre design, combined with economic success, within the South African property industry. Finalists for this award included Jubilee Mall in Hammanskraal, Pick n Pay on Nicol, Eastgate re-positioning phase one and the store design of Tasha's at The Zone @ Rosebank.

Nedbank Corporate Property Finance is the principal sponsor of the RDDA awards in 2011. “We are pleased to play a role in industry events such as the RDDA Awards.  This involvement allows us to celebrate the hard work that goes into property design, as this is a discipline that brings together creative and commercial elements in the design and construction of retail space to the benefit of consumers,” says Frank Berkeley, Managing Executive of Nedbank Corporate Property Finance.

Cape Union Mart Adventure Centre at Canal Walk Shopping Centre in Cape Town triumphed in the National Retailer of the Year Award, delivering first-rate service. Category finalists included Dis-Chem La Lucia Mall in KwaZulu-Natal, SuperSpar Sunridge Village in the Eastern Cape and Fruit & Veg City Food Lovers’ Market at The Wedge in Gauteng.

Holding the spotlight, Canal Walk’s ‘Snow’ marketing campaign by Marketing Concepts won the Spectrum Shopping Centre Marketing Excellence Award 2011, the hotly-contested category which celebrates excellence in shopping centre marketing. 

Regional finalists from KwaZulu-Natal included ‘Sugars The Bitter Truth’ at Chatsworth Centre and ‘The Pavilion contributes towards the building blocks of education’ at The Pavilion. Wonderpark Shopping Centre’s ‘Please donate your Small/Big/Brown/Silver Change’ represented the Gauteng region. In addition to the winner, Western Cape finalists comprised ‘J&B Met 2011’ at Cavendish Square, Canal Walk ‘Gets Social’ and ‘Growsmart’ which is undertaken at four Growthpoint Properties’ centres in the province, being The Constantia Village, Longbeach Mall, Golden Acre and Middestad Mall.

Making sure that our shopping centres remain attractive and safe are the industry service providers and this year Supercare Cleaning Services cleaned up in the National Service Provider of the Year category and won the Spectrum Award for its services at Paarl Mall.

Other smart finalists in this category included Prestige Cleaning Services at Gateway Theatre of Shopping in KwaZulu-Natal, Marina Landscapers at Fountains Mall in the Eastern Cape and Life Landscapes at Lifestyle Garden Centre in Gauteng.

“The strong pack of entries in 2011 an excellent indication of retail sector innovation and business savvy in South Africa. It also shows the respect in which the highly coveted Spectrum Awards are held by the industry,” notes Stops.