Hardware Plaza

Hardware Plaza is a commercial building at 9 Snay Bin Amir Street in downtown Kampala, Uganda. It has ten floors and offers office space and retail shops for rent. The listing is published by Crane Management Services Ltd (CMS), a Kampala property management company. Unit sizes, rents and the number of available units are not published: ask CMS directly. A short written request that states the type of space wanted, an office or a shop, makes the reply easier to read and to compare.

What the building offers

According to the listing on the CMS website, the building has:

• ten floors;
• two passenger lifts;
• fitted LED lighting;
• 24-hour security;
• parking, with no figure given for the number of spaces;
• office space and retail shops for rent.

These are the features the manager chose to list; anything else, such as how the security is organised or how parking is allocated, should be confirmed with CMS or during a visit.

The listing is filed under commercial property and marked for rent. It offers no homes and nothing for sale: Hardware Plaza is not a residential development.

Who manages the building

On its website, Crane Management Services Ltd describes itself as a real estate management company and a subsidiary of the Ruparelia Group. Its pages describe property management, not construction. The listing names neither the developer who built Hardware Plaza nor the year it was completed. CMS is the contact for both.

Building status

The CMS listing presents offices and shops for rent in a building whose facilities are described as in place (lifts, lighting, security). It does not say the building is under construction. It gives no completion or renovation date either. The exact condition of the vacant units is a question for the manager. A site visit is the simplest way to check the lifts, the lighting and the common areas before committing to anything.

What is not published

• The size of the offices and shops.
• The number of vacant units.
• The rent: the listing shows the figure 13,500 with no currency and no period (per month, per year, per square metre). It cannot be read reliably, so it is not repeated here as a rent.
• Service charges, security deposit, lease length and payment terms.
• The number of parking spaces.

On each of these points, a written answer from the manager, ideally with a draft lease, is more reliable than a verbal one. Keeping these answers in writing also makes it easier to compare Hardware Plaza with other buildings on the same terms.

Contacting the manager

Crane Management Services Ltd publishes these contact details on its website:

• address: 4th Floor, Crane Chambers, Plot 38, Kampala Road, Kampala;
• phone: +256 414 343 552 or +256 702 711 142;
• email: [email protected].

When writing, naming the building and its street address helps the request reach the person in charge of the right property.

A note for West African readers

Uganda is not part of WAEMU (UEMOA). Commercial lease law, currency and tax there differ from those of Togo, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire or Senegal. Rules of thumb that hold in Lomé or Abidjan do not carry over to Kampala. A lease in Uganda should be reviewed by a professional practising in Uganda.