Ahmed Galal Ismail, chief executive officer of Majid Al Futtaim – Properties told Thomson Reuters Projects that the company has a healthy pipeline of future developments with three super-regional malls slated to open in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Oman between now and 2021.
He said the company will open City Centre Almaza, its fourth shopping centre in Egypt, in September 2019, and is on track to open City Centre Al Zahia in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2020. “The year afterwards [2021], we will open Mall of Oman, which would be the largest shopping, entertainment destination in the Sultanate of Oman,” he said on the sidelines of the inauguration of My City Centre Masdar in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
The $714 million Mall of Oman will feature 137,000 square metres (sq m) of retail space, while the $708 million City Centre Al Zahia and the $233 million City Centre Almaza will offer 136,200 sq m and 103,455 sq m of retail spaces respectively, according to previous company statements. In January, Majid Al Futtaim had opened $117 million City Centre Suhar, its fourth shopping centre in Oman.
Ismail said My City Centre Masdar in Masdar City is the company’s first shopping mall in Abu Dhabi, and its fifth My City Centre neighbourhood retail concept. The 300 million UAE dirhams mall ($81.7 million) mall with 18,500 sq m of gross leasable area and the 100th Carrefour store in the UAE is the company’s 25th shopping mall in the region, according to a company press statement.
Ismail said 80 percent of the retail space at My City Centre Masdar has been leased. “We expect to attract a million visitors in the first nine months of our operations and in the first full year of operations next year, we’re hoping to attract two million visitors,” he said, adding that the mall’s immediate catchment area has a population of 100,000 people.
