Published by the government of Zimbabwe
17 November 2008
Harare — THE Bulawayo City Council has resolved to put to tender the redevelopment of the Ascot Racecourse area following an application by a consortium of companies to turn it into a blue chip mall and commercial centre.
The decision by the local authority was adopted at a recent full council meeting.
It resolved that the area should be offered to developers through the usual tender process and that potential developers be required to produce development plans for the area.
According to the latest council minutes, the latest application for the area had been received from Asakhe Ezweni Property Development Consortium - which consists of four companies - to develop the racecourse into a shopping mall and commercial centre, comprising of super chain stores, departmental stores, specialist boutiques, automobile centre, office park, hospitality and leisure centre, health facility, information communication technology and learning park as well as residential apartments.
"Applications and inquires have been received from a number of potential developers to develop Ascot Racecourse area. Recently an application had been received from Asakhe Ezweni Property Development Consortium for the redevelopment of Ascot Racecourse area," read parts of the report.
The consortium indicated that it was ready to start development as soon as the land was made available and the funding for the development would be from its own resources, local finance houses as well as offshore funds.
The redevelopment of Ascot Racecourse seems to be in the plans of a number of developers as evidenced by many applications that have been received by the Bulawayo City Council's Engineering Services Department.
Some of the applications received were from Asakheni Bulawayo, Initiative of Yakhani Property Consortium, Msuna Safaris, Mr E E Mercuri (the late architect) and Richard Ellis.
The Ascot Racecourse area covers over 80 hectares and as such it is hoped that the development of the area would increase the number of shopping malls in the city and also ease office congestion in the Central Business District.
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