Kumasi City Mall, developed by leading South African property development and investment company Atterbury, has won the first ever Africa Property Investment (API) Award for retail real estate.

The awards, announced at the recent API Summit and Expo 2017 held in Sandton Central, recognise innovation and outstanding achievement.

Kumasi City Mall was selected as the best retail project from a strong field of world-class calibre entries.

The new awards, with a unique focus on sub-Saharan African real estate, are judged on a wide range of criteria including integration into the environment, originality of concept, technical and architectural quality, sensitivity to the local community, innovation, sustainability, response to market demands, financial performance, and the impact of the project on economic convergence.

Atterbury developed Kumasi City Mall for its owners, Delico Kumasi Limited and AttAfrica has been appointed as the asset manager, and is responsible for its day-to-day running and operations. Boogertman + partners were the architects responsible for the design of this award-winning mall.

The world-class 18,500sqm modern Kumasi City Mall is built on a total land area of over 15 acres and has the potential to expand up to 28,000sqm. It is located in the city of Kumasi, the Ashanti region’s capital, which is Ghana’s second largest metropolitan centre after Accra. Kumasi City Mall is the first and only mall in the entire northern sector of the country. It took 24 months develop and opened on 20 April 2017.

It is based on the African notion of gathering under the trees and as such is rooted within a Ghanaian forest analogy and the context of Kumasi. The building includes innovative features such as using composite timber as cladding and breezeblock walls. The design stays architecturally sensitive to the region and includes green building features like natural ventilation, wastewater harvesting and LED lighting.

Kfir Rusin, Managing Director for API Events, congratulated Atterbury saying:  “Kumasi City Mall was a stand-out winner in the retail category. We congratulate Atterbury, and everyone involved in Kumasi City Mall project, for this sterling example of excellence in African real estate development. They have set an exceptionally high standard for retail property in sub-Saharan Africa and the API Awards going forward.”

Commenting on winning this inaugural award for Kumasi City Mall, Cobus van Heerden of Atterbury Property Developments says: “With our development of Kumasi City Mall, we have created a one-stop shopping experience, one that we believe is truly world-class. We are thrilled that API has recognised this excellence.

This accolade from API is a testament to the extraordinary levels of expertise, experience and skill that Atterbury has invested in sub-Saharan Africa. It is also a tribute to the exceptional team we have built here at Atterbury and the distinctly successful developments we deliver to the highest standards internationally.”