aLL Design Mall in Kenya: The British architecture firm aLL Design in conjunction with Kiloran Development Group are constructing the latest shopping mall in Nairobi.
The mall which has been dubbed, The Beacon, is situated off Nairobi’s city centre and is estimated to be ready by the year 2020.
“It will be a mixed use property, occupying 28,500 square metres (306,771 square feet) and set on a site off the east of Uhuru Highway towards Bunyala Road roundabout,” says a report in a local daily. “Once complete, it will be the largest mall space on the periphery of the City Centre as most large malls are usually found closer to residential areas as opposed to the Central Business District (CBD).”
The UK firm, co-founded by the late famed maverick architect Will Alsop, says the development will become a retail leisure destination in its own right and also house offices.
“We were intrigued by Kiloran’s ideas for this mall in Nairobi and were pleased to be able create an open-air mall with a focus on sustainability, fun and family which we believe to be key drivers on future international mall design.” said Marcos Rosello, co-founder of aLL Design.
The firm reckons the mall will sit well on its prime retail pitch immediately between major employment zones — the Central Business District, the Industrial Area and Upper Hill — thus broadening the localised leisure offer to encourage longer dwell time at the mall by visiting families with children, teenagers and young people.
In 2015, Kiloran — an investment vehicle of British nationals — set up a Sh1.3 billion shopping mall in Nanyuki with Chandarana FoodPlus as the anchor tenant. Cedar Mall is their first property development in Kenya which received Sh820 million construction funding from Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed Housing Finance.
The planned city centre mall is aLL Design’s first project in Africa and the second shopping centre-led development for Kiloran LLP, who have offices in both London and Nairobi.
The mixed use space will feature a shopping centre and Grade A office project. It will have 24,300 square metres of retail, food and beverage along with a 4,200 square metre, seven-storey office tower overlooking the mall’s roof garden and bar.
“The building will be an architectural legacy for Nairobi that will serve to promote tourism,” the firm said.
