Despite talk of recession, South Africa has at least 20 malls under construction that are expected to open within the next two years. Some of them are huge and there are no signs of developers letting up, BusinessDayLive reports.

In southern Johannesburg, Zenprop is building Mall of the South at 65,000 square meters (700,000 square feet).

North of Johannesburg, Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Atterbury, the development
arm of JSE-listed Attacq, is developing Mall of Africa. At 120,000 square meters (1.3 million square feet), it will be the largest new mall built in South Africa in 10 years.

Africa’s largest mall, Gateway Theatre of Shopping has been described as the largest shopping center in Africa and the southern hemisphere. It is located in Umhlanga, north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It opened in 2001 and has a retail floor space area of 220,000 square meters (2.36 million square feet).

By comparison, Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is 4.2 million square feet.

Another mega mall expected to come online within the next 12-to-18 months is The Billion Group’s Bay West centre, under construction in Port Elizabeth. It will be 88,000 square meters (947,000 square feet).

If all proposed retail projects go ahead, South Africa’s large community, regional and
super-regional malls and shopping centers will grow from the current estimate of 155 to 180, according to figures from the South African Council of Shopping Centres, BusinessDayLive reports.

As long as malls keep performing, developers will keep on building them, Emira Property Fund CEO James Templeton told BusinessDayLive on the sidelines of the South African Property Owners Association conference Wednesday.

Atterbury is expected to open eight new shopping centers in South Africa, Namibia and Ghana before the end of October — no easy feat, said James Ehlers, managing director of Atterbury Property Developments.

” (But)…many of these projects have been planned over several years to create quality assets for Atterbury and our partners,” Ehlers said. “Besides developing … shopping centers to benefit retailers and shoppers alike, completing these retail assets also creates new property income streams for Atterbury and our co-investors.”

Atterbury said it has long-term confidence in the viability of shopping centers and in consumer demand, BusinessDayLive reports.