Arandis boasts of economic opportunities
Chief Executive Officer of the Arandis Town Council, Florida Husselmann
The town is now boasting its own shopping centre that is accommodating U-Save, Pep Stores, Style, an FNB branch, Blue/Green Foods Fish Shop, Three-D, Trading (Cellphone accessories) and AA Miracle Pizzeria and Take Away. The town will soon boast of another shopping centre said, Husselman in an interview with the Economist this week. “The site for the shopping centre was handed over earlier this week and construction will commence early next year. This is the first phase and the total floor area of the complex will be 176sqm.” The N$3.9 million shopping centre will have the main Supermarket Woermann &Brock a bottle store, a delivery lobby, Chikki (Chicken outlet) and ablution facilities. The development is made possible by Kalahari Holdings. According to Husselmann the development which will also house other fast food shops and a restaurant will create jobs for more than 50 people after completion. She also said other developments coming to the town include the construction of a fire station which will commence early next year after the builder’s holiday. N$2.5 million has been allocated for the council funded project by the Ministry of Regional, Local Government and Housing which will consist of a double volume garage, ablution facilities, a kitchen, dormitory, offices and a gym facility.
With the expansion of the port of Walvis Bay and Arandis’ strategic location various logistical service opportunities have opened, which will include amongst others a truck port, dry depot and warehousing facilities. Husselman told that Economist that she is very optimistic about the town developments and that now more people are looking to invest in the town, “Now that the essential service providers such as retail and banking institutions are operating, it has stimulated other industries to knock on the doors of the Council and in order to be ready to accommodate the needs of such developments, the Council has adopted a 20 year structure plan to avoid ad-hoc planning.” “In this plan we have provision for residential, industrial, light industrial, general industrial, institutional and commercial erven. Currently the new layouts for Arandis consists of approximately 1500 erven, five new townships which will contribute to doubling the size of Arandis when fully developed,” she added. She said although the council has planned and formalised these new extensions they will only be developed once water, sewage, roads and electrical services are available. Through TIPEEG, the Council managed to benefit and has already provided electricity to 140 erven in the town. Additionally the Council is currently busy with the provision of sewage, water, road and electricity to 101 residential erven and a few commercial erven in Extension 2.
