Sun Valley Mall

Project Details:

Value: R146.7m
Date: 2015
Client: Shoprite Checkers
Architect: Barry Slavin Architects

Sun Valley Mall is situated on the corner of Buller Louw Drive and Main Road in Noordhoek, a village known for its scenic beauty, beaches, indigenous vegetation and wetlands.

The Sun Valley project included the construction of a mall with Checkers Hyper and Dis-Chem Pharmacy as the anchor tenants, a Virgin Active, as well as a 950-vehicle parking area around the buildings. The build for the double-story Virgin Active included a swimming pool, steam room and a health bar. Numerous green technologies relating to the efficient use of light, skylights for natural lighting as well as heat pumps, were incorporated in the mall’s design.

The Isipani team faced a number of environmental challenges on site. Cape Town’s notorious South Easter in particular made working conditions very difficult. At wind speeds of 70 km/h and more the cranes could no longer be operated with any degree of safety and the hours lost added to the pressure of meeting construction deadlines. An excessive amount of underground water was also discovered while constructing Virgin Active’s swimming pool.

There were also ecological challenges due to the development’s proximity to an important wetland that is the breeding ground of one of the Western Cape’s endemic toad species, the Western Leopard Toad. The species is under constant threat as all known breeding populations are found within Cape Town’s metropolitan areas, specifically Tokai, Muizenburg, Hout Bay, Noordhoek, Observatory and Grassy Park.

In August every year thousands of Cape Leopard Toads migrate to their respective breeding ponds to mate before migrating back to their urban habitats. Hundreds of volunteers turn up every year to help the toads to cross the roads and other man-made obstacles. In Noordhoek, volunteers and members of the Endangered Wildlife Trust erect toad barriers on Noordhoek Main Road. As the toads are unable to jump the barriers, the volunteers are able to catch the amphibians and carry them to Lake Michelle where the toads remain until September when volunteers once again help them back across the road. In order to protect this endangered toad while Sun Valley Mall was under construction, the wetland area had to be fenced off as a no-go area. In addition, a water canal feeding the wetland area also had to be protected from potential spillages related to construction activity.