Two Rivers Lifestyle Center

Two Rivers Development is a mixed-use development with retail, residential, office, leisure, and hospitality components sitting on 100 acres. The project is situated in Nairobi’s diplomatic Blue Zone at the heart of the affluent Gigiri, Muthaiga, and Runda neighbourhoods and is just minutes away from the United Nations complex and the American Embassy.

A prominent feature of this development is the Two Rivers Mall that makes up ~10% of the development. It was named after the two rivers traversing through its 10.2-acre mall land area. Scheduled to open in March 2016, the mall already has French retailer Carrefour (which operates over 12,000 stores in more than 30 countries) under contract as its anchor tenant with 10,000m². Other brands that make up the exciting mix of tenants include LC Waikiki (a luxury Turkish clothing line), Bose, Woolworths, Nike, Hugo Boss, and Mr. Price. The retail section is made up of approximately 50% local and 50% international brands. According to the mall’s retail consultant, the rent for this space falls between $24/m² and $55/m² per month.

Other segments that make up the remaining 90% of the project include a 3-star hotel being undertaken by City Lodge Hotel, an office building developed by Victoria Commercial Bank, and a 5-star hotel and residential apartments that are in various stages of development.

The Two Rivers Development project is managed by Athena Properties Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Centum that provides a comprehensive range of real estate solutions. In addition to the over 150 retail and food outlets, the site has over 30% of land set aside for parks and natural open space.

The first phase of the Two Rivers that broke ground in October 2013 is set on 55 acres was completed Q2:2017. Equity partners for the development are Centum (58%), AVIC (38%), and ICDC (4%). Total project cost as of 2016 was Sh23 Billion ($226 Million), and it is important to note that the development site was bought from a prominent Kenyan family in a deal estimated to be Sh1 billion ($9.8 Million and $24/m²).

According to a 2016 report by Knight Frank, Nairobi is currently the largest market in Sub-Saharan Africa (ex-South Africa) in terms of existing shopping center floor space (391,000m²) and it has the biggest development (470,000m²). The majority of these projects have the backing of major institutional players on the continent, including the 33,000m² Garden City Mall (Actis) that opened in 2015.