Property

The failed South African shopping mall that is falling apart and standing empty except for an ice skating rink

Bianke Neethling • 10 July 2026

Forest Hill City Shopping Centre in Centurion has failed to achieve a turnaround despite exiting business rescue in 2022.

Daily Investor visited the mall and found that it now stands largely empty, with parts of the shopping centre completely closed off.

One of the only reasons it remains open and continues to attract some visitors is its ice skating rink.

Construction of Forest Hill City started in 2012, led by the Billion Group, a leading black-owned property development company.

Located on Marie Road in Monavoni, Centurion, the R1.5 billion development opened its doors for trading on 29 May 2014, spanning a huge area of 75,000 m².

Forest Hill City was mixed-use, containing both retail, lifestyle, and office precincts, including two hotels and high-end residential blocks, with four levels of parking.

The mall also featured a South African first: a circular racetrack design with parking. This design allowed easy access to the shopping centre from any point in the parkade.

According to the mall’s website, it offers a unique shopping experience and entertainment offering: “An all-encompassing experience that offers the best in family entertainment.”

When it opened, the mall boasted some impressive anchor tenants, including a Woolworths, Clicks, Checkers Hyper, and Truworths.

It also had a line-up of specialist fashion retailers and brands, including designer boutiques like Bogart.

Another major attraction is the mall’s Ice Rink, where visitors can hire skates, get their skates sharpened, or attend an in-house skating academy.

On top of this, the mall boasted a Ster Kinekor movie theatre, a fast-food forecourt, a bowling alley and a games arcade.

The mall’s website states that it also offers free parking and free wi-fi.

In 2016, Forest Hill City shopping centre was bought by Rebosis Property Fund, a then-JSE-listed real estate investment trust (REIT) – which is where its problems started.

Forest Hill City today

Rebosis took over the Billion Group in 2016, and with it acquired major regional shopping centres like Baywest City, the largest mall in the Eastern Cape, and Forest Hill City.

However, a few years later, Rebosis came under pressure, faced with mounting debt, liquidity challenges, a failed UK expansion, and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2022, Rebosis entered voluntary business rescue, which later saw the suspension of its shares on the JSE and the systematic sale of its assets to repay creditors.

One such sold-off asset was Forest Hill City, which was sold to Hangar 18 in 2024. Hangar 18 is a prominent private property investment company specialising in premier retail assets.

Considering that Forest Hill City was built for R1.5 billion, Hangar 18 got it for a steal at only R500 million.

However, the mall has struggled to recover ever since its previous owner’s financial distress, and is now a shell of what it once was.

In 2024, it was still hosting events like comedy nights and markets. Today, it stands largely empty, with vast swaths of the mall cordoned off.

Daily Investor visited the mall in July to see how it was faring and found that large parts of it were in disrepair.

A security guard told Daily Investor that they have closed off some of the passages to the rest of the mall, as it has been essentially abandoned for the past two years.

No retailers and no restaurants were open when Daily Investor visited, and some of the extra parking and entrances were also closed off.

Only one entrance remained open – the one that leads to the ice rink, which is the only reason the mall remains open.

Surprisingly, there were some visitors in the mall, all at the ice skating rink. Note that Daily Investor visited the mall during the July school holidays.

Aside from the ice rink, many parts of the mall are dilapidated, with markings on the walls, broken glass, and damp patches.

Per Daily Investor’s observations, the bathrooms and ice rink seem to be the only areas of the mall still functioning.

The photos below were taken during Daily Investor’s visit to the mall in July.