Harare — A CITY within a city at the exact centre of the city: Joina City on the corner of Harare's Jason Moyo Avenue and Julius Nyrere Way fulfils that description.

And just as important as its location is its size and the security it can offer shoppers: Joina City has 600 underground parking bays, four shopping floors with around 60 shops and restaurants, a gym floor, four cinemas, a 16-floor office tower and tight security.

Anchoring the south-west corner of the central business district, Joina is seen as critical in moves to bring suburban shoppers back into the city centre.

It not only provides a critical mass of shops within a secure environment and a large block of ultra-secure parking, it also extends the zone of modern upmarket buildings running west down Jason Moyo Avenue from the giant double block of buildings occupied by Meikles Hotel, ZB Life Towers and Eastgate.

Two large department stores owned by Meikles Africa, a cluster of post-independence shop and office towers built largely by Old Mutual, and some banks and well-maintained older office blocks fill most of Jason Moyo Avenue between the city centre's biggest hotel and Joina City. So the nucleus of a revival of central Harare now exists.

And major development is expected in the small gap of run-down buildings centred on Ximex Mall along this stretch. The National Social Security Authority is taking over that blight on the central business district, flattening it and planning a modern development.

Already, discussions are in progress over how that modern development can be linked with Joina City to provide an even-larger commercial centre. With all the talk of the decline of the city centre, and the growing trend of many suburban residents to avoid the area, everyone needs to realise that central Harare is far from being central Johannesburg. For a start, crime is rare.

Thanks possibly in part to the fact that the President of Zimbabwe himself, as well as a good part of his Cabinet, have to work in the city centre, plus some good policing and strong public spirit, thieves and other criminals do not have a foothold in the area.

The decline has been more in the movement of upmarket shops to the suburbs, especially to the new giant shopping centres of the northern suburbs, and their replacement by smaller down-market shops.

Several factors have contributed to this.

Parking problems are probably the most critical, with street parking controlled by touts and the two municipal parkades being dominated by contract parking provided for office workers as well as being somewhat run-down themselves.

Office parks have taken many head offices out of the city centre, along with their high-level executives. And once the movement north started, some of those reluctant to go had to move eventually with their customers.

But regardless of how big a city is, a flourishing commercial city centre is always needed. There are some shops which even rich cities the size of London, New York or Shanghai can only afford to have one of.

Only the centre of a large city can produce a critical mass of specialist shops that can supply everything.

This is why the West End of London, and New York's Broadway and Fifth Avenue, flourish.

The decline of central Harare has not been uniform.

The north-east corner of the central business district is firmly anchored by six blocks of Government offices, including the critical President's office. West from that area runs the financial district, extending three blocks deep at first from the "Government area" but with a long tail down Samora Machel Avenue.

The eastern and south-eastern edges of the central business district have been firmly anchored by Africa Unity Square, with the Anglican Cathedral and Parliament complex to its north, and the huge double block occupied by Meikles Hotel and Eastgate to its south.

So the northern and eastern edges of the CBD have remained "upmarket".

The problem has been the south-western edge and the creeping movement east of "kopje land".

Joina City now provides not only the barrier to that creep, but also is big enough to provide the centre of renewed growth in the exact centre of the city and to provide the beach-head for a reverse flow. This is not to imply that the new tower is isolated. Its main western neighbour is Town House itself, so with Joina City "upmarket" Harare has been pushed forward to Leopold Takawira Street.

The property manager of Joina City, Mr Kevin Smith, sees this reverse flow of development creating a great shopping street along Jason Moyo Avenue "from Meikles Hotel to Rainbow Towers" with Sam Nujoma Street, First Street, Julius Nyerere Way and Takawira Street providing the shopping arteries to the Financial District to the north. The redevelopment in the 1990s of the western end of Jason Moyo Avenue has narrowed the gap of urban blight between the two developed ends.

In a sense, Joina City is a leap of faith, faith in the resurrection of central Harare. But the leap is less than some high suppose. The CBD is far from dead.

All that is really needed is more secure public parking, more dedication from property owners and more developers willing to make that same leap of faith.