Ground was broken on site of the soon to be "Mall of Tete" on 21 May 2014. The 15 100m2 Mall is expected to take a total of 17 months to complete with the official opening planned for late 2015. This is a slightly longer building period for a project of this size, with the delay as a result of a lack of local building supplies.

Part of the solution has been for McCormick Property Development to manufacture its own bricks for the project so as to ensure as early completion date as possible. As always, local job creation is a top priority for McCormick Property Development and the Mall of Tete is set to provide over 600 jobs to the surrounding communities.

The development of the Mall has been broken up into two phases with the final phase allowing for the development of up to 50 000 m2. The first phase of the Mall will be anchored by Shoprite, Woolworths and Mr Price as well as a Game and a strong entertainment offering that is in the final stages of negotiation.

Whilst the Mall of Tete will be McCormick Property Development's first footprint into Mozambique, working with local developers VDE Limitada will ensure a world class product. Tete is a booming mining town with some of the world's largest coal reserves and research has shown a notable rise in disposable income in the area which indicates an obvious need to establish a formalised retail offering.

MD of McCormick Property Development, Jason McCormick, is confident that the expansion into Mozambique has come at the perfect time. "Since 1983 McCormick Property Development has pioneered rural and township development in South Africa and the lessons learnt over three decades are now being put into practice as we extend our reach into the African continent.

The move into Tete is the embodiment of our investment philosophy of focussing on areas of high economic growth on the continent and we look forward to furthering our footprint in Mozambique with the commencement of our 60 000m2 'Mall of Mozambique' development in the last week of June."