Eastgate Shopping Centre is an older established super regional shopping centre. Specialised smaller centres have been developed in the Eastgate catchment area serving shoppers traditionally loyal to Eastgate. Eastgate no longer has a presence to match neighbouring super regional centres such as Sandton City or the Mall of Africa. The mall configuration and layout is less appealing to the consumer and is in need of an innovative re-alignment consistent with new and future trends. The current mall widths, heights and lighting levels are inadequate Eastgate will need to respond to the challenge from these surrounding specialised and niche centres. Global trends and future technology must be accommodated in the masterplan to re-align the centre. Future technology such as Uber, self-driving cars, electric cars and on-line trading have arrived, or are imminent. These will impact the centre. It is a given that digital analytics, location-based marketing, push-notifications and on-line purchasing will change the shape, size and nature of tenants. The masterplan proposal presented here is intended to recognise these trends and demonstrate that Eastgate Mall can be re-aligned into a race track configuration. A new concourse and wider double volume walkways can facilitate pop up stores and product launches. At a macro level Eastgate needs to assert itself in Bedfordview and surrounds. The masterplan strategy we propose, seeks to provide recognisable beacons for
the centre to ‘brand’ itself on the skyline.