While the firm is expanding its current facility in Dar es Salaam, it will also soon build a property in Arusha, according to a top official.

 

The property was developed in 2004 by a Botswana-based investor Gulaam Husain Abdoola of GH Group that injected an $80-million investment after signing a 50-year contract with the University of Dar es Salaam to develop 40 hectares. The mall was later sold to another Botswana firm Turnstar Holdings in 2011 at $77 million. It has a mall, apartments, conference hall and two office blocks.

 

Now the firm is implementing the second phase which will expand the facility to have another 8,500 square metres for the mall; a complete conference centre; and another two office blocks with over 5,000 square metres.

 

"We are currently occupied by 100 per cent on the side of the mall and office blocks and 70 per cent for the apartment," said Mlimani City general manager Pastory Mrosso as a group of journalists and Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) visited the facility recently.

 

"As we talk, the new mall which is under construction has been pre-leased by 70 per cent," said Mr Mrosso as he expressed optimism on the potential customers.

 

Mlimani City Mall is located along Sam Nujoma Road which Mr Mrosso described as the major incentive from the government that made the facility easily accessible.

 

It is estimated that between 10,000 and 15,000 people visit the shopping centre everyday.

 

Turnstar Holdings managing director Gulaam Abdoola was quoted in April this year as saying that Turnstar proposed to fund the Mlimani City expansion through a mix of bank debt, internal cash reserves and the issue of up to $30 million of the dollar-denominated convertible bonds.

 

The Mlimani City expansion is estimated to cost $45 million and will generate an attractive development yield of 13 per cent in addition to net asset value uplift going forward, the Botswana-based Monitor newspaper reported.

 

The expansion is expected to complete by the end of this year, according to Mr Mrosso.

 

The extension of the mall and face lift to the existing frontage, additions to the Conference centre and the two additional office blocks will also put in place a basement parking of 342 bays. Other ancillary works are a fenced and developed Botanical garden with walk ways, demarcated picnic areas and admin block with ablutions and a gym to the residential villas.

 

TIC says the mall is one of the investments that it facilitated through different incentives and is working hard to attract more Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs).

 

According to the World Investment Report 2014, Tanzania's FDIs were at $2.1 billion but the investment promotion agency plans to more than double it to $5 billion come 2020.

 

"As government, the most important incentive we offered to Mlimani City is expansion of the Sam Nujoma Road which makes the mall easily accessible," said TIC acting executive director Clifford Tandari.

 

The main challenge facing TIC so far is outdated policy, laws and regulations that were not matching with the current trend.

 

For instance, the National Investment Promotion Policy was last reviewed in 1996 and the agency says that is too far to suit the current investment environment.

 

He said they will also propose review of some of the laws that increase burden to the investors by allowing multiple taxation especially regulatory charges.

 

TIC is now a one-stop centre for investment issues. Its offices contain units or representatives of Tanzania Bureau of Standards, TFDA, NEMC, Immigration, TRA and others.

 

The agency is now focusing on promoting industries that use local resources ranging from agro-processing, consumer goods, assembling plants and power generation which have great impact to the economy through jobs and value chain.

Source : allafrica.com