Construction of a mall that will incorporate the first snow park in South Africa is set to get underway next month.

The new Oceans Mall in Durban, KwaZulu Natal will be built over 36,000 square metres and also include 103 retail outlets, 12 restaurants, cinemas, an ice bar and a hotel and has a price tag of 1.4 billion Rand or €85m.

The indoor snow centre will be the second on the African continent after Ski Egypt in the north of the continent. The development’s website mentions the indoor snow centre but has no detail on its dimensions and whether it is purely a snow play area or will have an indoor slope.

Chains committed to the development include Woolworths, Virgin Active, Hard Rock Café and a Radisson Blu Hotel.  The development will also include twin 28 storey towers containing private apartments.

The mall is due to open by August 2020, by which time shoppers can “frolic in the snow, quench their thirst and satisfy their hunger pangs in plush restaurants,” before walking across the street to enjoy the “pristine Umhlanga promenade and beach,” according to a spokesperson.

Indoors now centres have been proposed for South Africa for several decades with the earliest known dating back to the 1990s when a centre was proposed for Cape Town.

oceans-umhlanga.co.za