• Name: Two Rivers Development;
• Location: Nairobi, Kenya;
• Site Area: 100 Acres;
• Built-up Area: 850,000m²;
• Uses: Retail (62,000m²/220 stores), Office (21,000m²), Hotel (370 Keys), Residential (100 luxury apartments);
• Developer & Project Manager: Athena Properties Limited;
• Architects: Boogertman & Partners;
• Contractors: AVIC, Howard Humphreys Limited, BDSP Partners, KOLMAN, YMR;
• Consultants: Knight Frank, Broll, Fernridge, ITEC;
• Parking: Parking Silo I (75,000m²/2,200 bays) & 3-level retail center parking (1,500 bays).

Positioned to be the largest lifestyle center within Sub Saharan Africa, ex South Africa, the Two Rivers Development is a mixed-use development with retail, residential, office, leisure and hospitality components on a site measuring 100 acres. The project is situated in Nairobi’s diplomatic Blue Zone at the heart of the affluent Gigiri, Muthaiga, Runda and Nyali neighborhoods and 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 Wakiki (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 has a projected completion date of 2020. Equity partners for the development are Centum (58%), AVIC (38%) and ICDC (4%). Total project cost to date stands at Sh23 Billion ($226 Millon), 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 centre floor space (391,000m²) and it has the biggest development (470,000m²). 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.

See the images below for more.