End of a 13-year era for shopping mall in South Africa’s richest city with a Pick n Pay, Woolworths Food, and a padel court

The Competition Commission has approved Accelerate Property Fund’s sale of Cedar Square Shopping Centre to Aristonas for R630 million.

Cedar Square has been part of Accelerate’s portfolio since the company’s founding, but will now be under new ownership.

This marks the end of an era for Cedar Square, which was part of Accelerate’s founding portfolio when it was created in 2013.

Prior to this, the centre was owned by South African property mogul Michael Georgiou, who had acquired a large property portfolio through his private entities.

In early 2013, Georgiou established Accelerate as a new corporate vehicle to take his property portfolio public on the JSE.

Accelerate absorbed 72 properties from Georgiou’s private portfolio, including Cedar Square and the fund’s flagship asset, Fourways Mall.

Fourways Mall is the largest shopping centre in South Africa, spanning 171,586 m², and the crown jewel in Accelerate’s portfolio.

Accelerate has been focusing much of its attention and capital on Fourways Mall in recent years.

This is because Fourways Mall suffered from high vacancy rates and faced severe financial trouble, prompting its owner to implement a turnaround strategy.

So far, this turnaround strategy has helped to reduce vacancies and improve the mall’s financial health.

However, some liquidity and debt concerns remain, and Accelerate now needs to free up capital to address these issues.

To do so, it is undertaking a disposal programme to optimise its portfolio and dispose of some non-core assets.

One of these assets is Cedar Square, which will now be sold to Aristonas after 13 years under Accelerate’s stewardship.

Cedar Square Shopping Centre

On Thursday, 12 November, the Competition Commission gave its nod of approval for Accelerate’s sale of Cedar Square.

It will be sold to Aristonas, which is owned by Big Apple Trust, a private trust based in South Africa.

Aristonas will acquire Cedar Square, its related income stream, and available bulk. However, it will not acquire the right to develop the bulk.

This right to develop Cedar Square’s available bulk of 40,447 m², valued at R168.78 million, will be retained by Accelerate.

Cedar Square is located on the corner of Willow Avenue and Cedar Road in Fourways, Johannesburg.

The centre spans a gross lettable area of 44,249 m², and some of its major tenants include Pick n Pay, Clicks, Woolworths Food, WCafé, Virgin Active, and Ster-Kinekor.

Cedar Square also boasts an outdoor padel court, which was the first Match Padel Academy in South Africa.

Accelerate previously reported that Cedar Square has a weighted-average gross rental of R153.08 per m², with a net operating income of R55.1 million per year.

It is being sold to Aristonas for R630 million, which Accelerate will use to reduce its debt and free up capital for Fourways Mall.

“The board is clear on the trade-off. Disposals reduce debt and improve financial flexibility, while also reducing the scale and diversity of the portfolio,” Accelerate said in its 2026 Annual Report.

“Each disposal is therefore assessed against debt reduction, liquidity, covenant headroom, value preservation, and the quality of the retained portfolio.”

The Competition Commission approved Cedar Square’s sale with no conditions, saying it is unlikely to substantially lessen or prevent competition in any market.