Park Foods revamp has businesses worried

AN initiative by the Khomas Regional Council to revamp a dilapidated Khomasdal shopping complex has been met with mixed reactions from residents and businesses operating there.

While residents around the suburb’s Vaalhoek area have expressed excitement over the prospects of soon having well-established, multinational retail outlets in their neighbourhood where Park Foods now stands, businesses renting shops from the council have spent the last month stressed over how their businesses are to survive the next year.
The various business owners were handed notification letters in December, in which they were informed of the council’s plans and given a deadline of January 20 to be out of their respective premises.
The revamp is set to start in the next month, and according to Dr Ben Mulongeni, director at the council’s Planning and Development Services division, it is set to last for approximately eight months.
Business owners say they were warned not to take for granted that they will return to the complex after its re-launch.
The Park Foods complex currently houses two shops, a take-away restaurant, a bottle store, butchery, barbershop, video rental outlet, a pizza cafe, and a repair shop for television sets and cellphones.
Speaking to The Namibian yesterday, Mulongeni said the council’s decision was taken because the dilapidated complex has attracted criminals and beggars and this created a poor image.
‘Park Foods is the property of the Khomas Regional Council. It’s one of our efforts to generate funds,’ Mulongeni explained.
‘We recently sat down and found that the place is really not in good shape. No serious business person will pay money to come there,’ Mulongeni said.
‘We decided that the place needs to be of a higher standard, and so it was decided that we had to spend money to start making some money,’ he said.
One of the affected business operators is Teresa Gorreia, whose family has for the past 20 years operated the bottle store Park Liquor.
The family last year took over the main shop in the complex, and Gorreia said they just recently managed to get settled in.
‘They only informed us of their plans in December. This was too late to get any discussions going because all offices were closed then,’ she said.
The Gorreias last year signed a five-year contract for the two businesses they operate, and in early December were granted a liquor licence to open a bar on the same premises.
‘We’ve just recently bought new refrigerators and other assets for the store; I don’t know what we are to do with the goods because we’re talking perishables; and what am I to do with the workers,’ Gorreia said.
The family plan to have their legal representatives meet with the Khomas Regional Council to discuss ways in which the council should pay them for the lack of business during the renovations.
Another of the business owners is Nick Engelbrecht, who started Nic’s Pizza Café last year.
‘This was my first business. Actually my dream come true,’ said Engelbrecht, who started off selling his own pizzas from a house in Windhoek North.
‘Most of my customers were from Khomasdal, and business was picking up to the extent that I had to move into a bigger place. That’s when I got this place,’ he said.
He has been operating from Park Foods for the past eight months.
‘Now I’m getting customers from town even supporting me,’ he said.
With the January 20 deadline fast approaching, Engelbrecht said he is growing desperate for a new outlet.
A key concern for Engelbrecht and some of his neighbours at Park Foods is that they might lose their loyal customers.
‘It took some time to build up a loyal customer base here. Now I guess I’ll have to see where I can start over,’ said Makarius Mweneni, who owns Sky-Tech Electronics, an electronics repair shop.
‘They say they will review our continued stay, but if you look at my business, I’m pretty small compared to the Shoprites and Games these people are talking of bringing in. I’m not too hopeful,’ Mweneni told The Namibian.