McCormick Property Development, a family business started in 1983, has built 88 retail centres across South Africa. Most of them are in townships and rural areas, Daily Investor reported.
The company has three malls under construction and 11 more in its immediate pipeline. It is expected to open two malls next year, one in KwaZulu-Natal and one in Limpopo.
McCormick is best known for building Alex Mall in Alexandra, Johannesburg, and Chris Hani Crossing. It also built Diepkloof Square in Soweto.
Many of its stakes in the finished malls are held in Exemplar REIT, which is listed on the JSE. Exemplar is valued at R8.35 billion, according to Daily Investor.
McCormick Property Development holds 54.27% of Exemplar, making the family its largest shareholder. The John McCormick Family Trust holds more shares on top of that.
The setup splits the work in two. McCormick builds new malls, and Exemplar owns them over the long term once they are complete.
John McCormick founded the business in 1983. He saw that poor communities had very little formal retail space.
During apartheid, black South Africans could not own commercial land. As a result, many township and rural families travelled long distances to buy food and basic goods from formal shops.
White business owners were also blocked from trading in some parts of the country. This limited investment in those areas.
McCormick partnered directly with local black entrepreneurs to secure land rights and build shopping centres together. His company developed the land, while local communities partly owned and ran the centres.
His first major project was Giyani Plaza, completed in 1985 in the former Gazankulu homeland. It came with an equity-sharing scheme for local community partners.
McCormick also convinced large retailers, mainly Shoprite and Pick n Pay, to open stores in these rural malls. Over time, his company and others filled the gap he first spotted.
The business changed when his son, Jason McCormick, took over as leader. Jason sped up the building pipeline and spread the company further across the country.
He added busy urban townships to the company’s focus, alongside rural towns. This led to centres such as Olievenhoutbosch Plaza in Centurion and Blouberg Mall in Limpopo.
Daily Investor reported that these malls have been very profitable because of high foot traffic. It said the number of shoppers often beats that of large middle-class malls such as Sandton City and Mall of Africa.
Jason also led the move to split development from long-term ownership through Exemplar. This let the family keep control of the building company and earn from the malls it owns.
The JSE listing also turned some of the family’s wealth into cash. It allowed the family to sell shares and spread its money across other investments.
Source: this article is based on reporting by Daily Investor. Image: Daily Investor. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Business desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Anelisa Nkuna covers business and money news for Tzaneen Voice. Anelisa reports on the rand, fuel prices, interest rates, jobs, Eskom, Transnet, farming and company results. The aim is simple: explain what the numbers mean for household budgets, small businesses and workers in South Africa.