Purple Mall Lekki: Bringing Convenience to Residential Developments

Fadekemi Ajakaiye

The Purple Mall Lekki is conceived as a one-stop centre for the convenience of residents in built-up neighborhoods.

The CEO, Purple Real Estate Income Plc., Olaide Agboola stated this at the official unveiling of Purple Mall Lekki, Lagos, recently.

The ribbon cutting and unveiling was done by the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, which signaled “the official opening of this development. Purple Lekki is part of our neighborhood retail concept, which is essentially that we bring convenience to residential developments around, in terms of their retail activities, their entertainment activities,” according to Agboola.

“The idea is to locate mixed-use retail structures within densely populated neighborhoods, similar to what we have in Maryland, Purple Maryland. If you notice we are not a destination center per say, we’re a neighborhood center, where you can easily walk to, you can easily drive to. We are within the community, we are part of the community, and that’s what really brought about the concept of the neighborhood concept and for us to co-locate all of these great brands doing different things within different spaces, providing the essence of essential goods like medicine, pharmacy, supermarket, retail, as well as the other aspects of things that you need, entertainment, cinema, skating, we are also infusing other elements that are essential to the soul. 

“So within the building we’ve got a gym, a fitness center, we also have a health and wellness center coming up within the building as well, and at the same time we’re also going to have long and short stay apartments within the building where people can live, stay for short periods, stay for long periods, whether you’re a domestic, whether you live in Lagos or whether you live outside of Lagos or outside of the country and you’re coming in for the station or for business or for tourism, we have all that space within this building.

“So it’s a mixed-use building and what it inspires is convenience. Those that live in the building can easily get everything that they need within the building without leaving the building. They can walk within the building, there’re some offices within the building. At the same time they can play within the building and they can shop their groceries, essential and non-essential, within the building. So it serves as a one-stop center and the concept is obviously to co-locate and bring everything into one singular place that is easily accessible.

“Mix-use is an embodiment of everything. We have retail, we have offices, we have the gym, we also have the residential and this is the first mixed-use building that is retail infused. You’ve seen buildings where you have offices.”

The Chairman, Board of Directors, Mrs. Jumoke Akinwune said, “We have 206 studio apartments within the building, 162 keys in actual fact and the reason why it’s 162 is simply because there’s some one beds, two beds, three beds and four beds, but quite a lot of studio units in there as well. So, when you look at the keys, we have 162 keys. in total. We have 206 studios, but when you combine them into two floors, then you have 162 units. 

“The entire building is on eight floors. It’s separated by a middle floor which is the car park, but the car park also has five levels of car park to the rear, connecting to the middle floor of the building on the third floor.

“We have car parks that can accommodate over 500 cars. It’s a complex building, but just to understand, there’s a huge platform, and that platform is on four or five levels, and then on top of that platform is a small tower. That tower block is where you have the residences, the studio apartments. So, this is a typical mixed-use, excellent example, on the second floor, we have some offices.

On the second floor, sharing the same floor with the fitness floor, right? So, we’ve got the gym in there, but we also have the offices on that floor as well. So we have a mix of everything. Offices, retail, entertainment, and then residential.

“There are similar mixed-use buildings in this sense that you have a mixture of maybe office and retail, office and retail, or office and residential. But this is the first of its kind in terms of cutting across the various aspects of real estate that you could possibly think about – retail, entertainment, offices, residential, all in one building. So, I mean, it’s quite unique, it’s quite a different building from what you typically would see everywhere. It’s like a destination building. So, you’re not passing through, you’re coming here for a reason. You’re coming here to be entertained, watch a movie, you can come to the gym, you can come to eat, you can live, you can work. So, there are many mixed-uses in Nigeria, particularly in Lagos, but I don’t know right now, off the top of my head, any that is a real destination.”

On when business started in the building, she said, “We started the operation in November 2024 and it was quite busy. And what we’ve seen, the impact we’ve seen beyond the use of the building, is the fact that we have seen the elements of the impact on jobs within the environment, within the neighborhood.

“So within the building itself, there’s been a plethora of jobs that have been created within the neighborhood, from the small-time jobs to the major jobs. If you look at the impact on the environment in itself alone, the drainage works, maintenance and stuff that were done by us and will continue to be taken care of by us. The garden works to the front of the building from Delta Afrique to Carwash is also done and maintained by us.

“So we are adding all of that notification, that environmental impact to the entire neighborhood. And it’s interesting for you to also note that this building is the first building that has been certified, EDGE certified by the International Finance Corporation, IFC. So it’s got a IFC EDGE certification, which is the topmost certification that you have for environmental impact, that’s sustainability for a building of this nature.

“And it’s the first of its kind that is retail-infused, that has received such certification from the country today. So there’s quite a real impact that we’re cutting across from the real ones that you probably can’t even see, feel and touch, jobs to the environment. 

“We’re also recruiting and also increasing our numbers in terms of what we do. But if you also look at the element of what we do in itself, from the supermarket down to the perfume stores, you can see the level of commerce and impact in terms of the economic impact that we’re creating in the Lekki environment. And our aim is to make a significant impact within the Lekki environment and be able to at least take a really chunk of the market share in terms of the economy.

“In terms of maintenance, we’re ensuring that we keep this building in this state for the next 10, 20 years. I mean, it’s the function of tenant mix. If you look at what we’ve done, it’s very rare for you to find more than one supermarket, more than one cinema, more than one skating area.

 We’ve done a very good job in terms of the mix of tenants. In fact, the mix of moves in itself. The building is functional from about 6 a.m. in the morning with gym lovers going up to the gym floor until late in the evening to the cinema lovers that want to watch movies.

 So around the clock is in use. And if you look at the element of that, it implies that the sort of tenants that we’ve got together are strong domestic tenants. This is not their singular location

And the success of this implies that everybody pays their own fair share of services, which then implies that services are provided on a continuous basis in the mid to long run, which is then utilized to service the building. So we do not anticipate that we will not provide the services or we will not deliver what we intend to. And what we’ve done here is that we’ve used mostly domestic players, ensuring that we are also cutting costs from this early stage of construction all the way to actual maintenance of the building itself.

 our facility management is all embedded in-house, we have a dedicated team cutting across the two locations that we do operate. And we can expand that team size with more experienced hands to cover those locations and to ensure that we keep the maintenance levels at the highest possible level.

About power supply, Which is part of our IFC certification that we’ve got because power is one of those areas that was looked at to get the certification. Our strategy is a mixed approach, a three-pronged approach. A code scope on the one leg, a diesel engine on the other leg, and gas supply on the third leg.

It’s the blended mixture of these that we are working towards to ensure that we have a full-proof plan that is cost-effective to maintain around the building on a power basis. And It’s centrally-based. Everything that we do in the building is centrally-based in terms of power provision. Even to the cooking gas that the restaurants use is also centrally-provided.

DCEO and Co-founder, Mr Obinna Onunkwo said they are a real estate company facilitating people that trade. 

“We acquired the land just before COVID.”

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, after performing the official ribbon cutting and unveiling of Purple Mall Lekki, urged the company to spread its projects across the state, explaining that every part of it is viable economically.

Governor Sanwo-Olu said, “I stand here this afternoon to appreciate all the people who have worked tirelessly to make Purple Mall Lekki work. This place is a destination where all live activities can happen. You can live, play, relax and go to the gym. So it is a full one-shop ecosystem.

“I appreciate the amount of effort that has been put into making this happen. I want to more importantly applaud the sheer size of this project that we have seen dotted Freedom Way Lekki. So, You can see what our Lagos is becoming successes like this show our sheer belief, and resilience to transform the prosperity and unlocking value of our city. Nobody is going to do it for us.

“It is only when we innovate, think out of the box, challenge ourselves and do it. I realise that we are not documenting the successes recorded in Lagos by doers. I think it is about time that all of you in your little spaces begin to document your successes no matter how little. I want to encourage the management of purple Lekki, let it not just stop at this area of Lagos.

“I am the governor of over 25 million. So my challenge to the board and management, is the money you see in Lekki, let it also reflect in other areas of Lagos. All you need to do is to have the ability to change the needs and the prospects for each other locations in Lagos.

“I want to say that every part of Lagos is vibrant. I can assure you that whatever it takes to work and be sustainable, the Lagos State government is ready to support us so that we can spread the prosperity of Lagos Once this is done, the city will begin to develop in a somewhat even manner. I want to stand here and say to you that we as a government, will continue to provide an enabling environment for this to happen.

“We will continue to ensure that whatever the case, whatever the challenges, or hiccups that you have, that will not be a hindrance to the visions or to the investment you want to increase. We are ready to sit with you, We are ready to discuss. I am ready to remove the red tape because it’s only when we create an enabling environment for Businesses that they can flourish. We can’t do all, we need the private sector to do it. I am told that in this premises there could be about 1,000, 1,500 people that are out of the unemployment market.

“That’s a huge number and very commendable. I am also aware that when it’s completed, close to 200 residents will also have accommodation. I can see that the Purple Mall Lekki is also concerned about the environment and is looking at sustainability. It’s an eco-friendly environment which I believe tick all the boxes to ensure that put in place facility on how they trap all of the waste and all of the things needed to bring about carbon emission, that is the development of the future.”