Retail International - Retail Development - 3 million Middle East sq.metres and No 1 in Abu Dhabi for Austin Reed

Date: 15 May 2001

Abu Dhabi

Once outshopped by its rival Dubai, the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi has begun to balance the score with the opening in the past month of two mega malls in the heart of the capital city.

The first, Marina Mall, comprising some 74,000 sq. meters (796,000 sq.ft) of leaseable area with over 200 units including anchors for Carrefour and Ikea, opened at the beginning of April. The other, Abu Dhabi Mall, with some 70,000 sq. meters (753,000 sq. ft) of leaseable space and 368 units opened last week.

Austin Reed

Amongst the many European brands to have opened units in these state of the art malls are British fashion house Austin Reed, leading German footwear brand Salamander, and Spanish leisure brand Springfield, part of the giant Cortefiel Group.

Each of these leading European cross border brands are in pan-Gulf partnership with Dubai based Al Ghurair Retail, who were represented and advised by CB Hillier Parker's Middle East retail specialist Simon Thomson, Managing Director of Retail International.

The Abu Dhabi store is the first in the UAE capital for Austin Reed and the second in the region. The first Middle East store opened in Dubai last year.

Bahrain 'giants'

To underscore just how much the Gulf is becoming a retail paradise two giant malls are about to open in Bahrain's capital Manama. Bahrain Mall, comprising some 55,000 sq. meters (592,000 sq.ft.) will be opening on 23 May. This will be anchored by a 13,500-sq. metre (145,000-sq. ft.) hypermarket for Géant of French group Casino, its first in the Gulf. A second, in Sharjah, UAE, has already been announced.

Close by, the 36,000 sq. metre (387,000 sq. ft) Al Dana Mall due to open in July will be anchored by the 3,000 seat Al Dana Cineplex the largest movie theatre in the Gulf and a 7,500 sq. metre (81,000 sq. ft) hypermarket for Saudi based Giant Stores - not to be confused with Groupe Casino's Géant.

3 million sq.metres and rising

In its Spring Middle East Shopping Centre Report, Retail International identified some 2.7 million sq. metres (29 million sq.ft) of completed retail space with more than 3.0 million sq.m. (32.3 million sq.ft.) in the pipeline. ''The completion of these four malls alone, will bring the total up to the 3 million sq. metre mark.'' Commented Simon Thomson, ''With further malls coming on stream in the near future in Sharjah, Oman and Qatar, by year end the completed total could well be nearer 4 million than 3 million sq. metres.''

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