Saudi MEGA MALL...

[Saudi Dunes]

I was reading an article by "Euromonitor International" about retailing in Saudi Arabia. And to my surprise they said that a MEGA MALL AT 800,000 SQUARE METERS is being developed in Saudi Arabia, and should be open by the end of 2005.

800,000 square meters equals 8,611,120 square feet, which will make this mall about 95.68% of Dubai Mall, so most probably the second largest shopping facility on the planet. The malls name....GULF SHOPPING CITY.

Has anyone heard of this mall? This article's information was compiled from 2000-2004 and it was published in December 2004. Could this mall be the Granatha Town Centre in Riyadh or the Shobily Mall in Khobar?? The Developers might have changed its name?? Or is it something in Jeddah?? That city seems to have more malls than people. LOL

Here is the article...Euromonitor International (http://www.euromonitor.com/Retailing_in_Saudi_Arabia)
There isn't much other information, you need to subscribe...and the fee is 1700 USD...

[Bahraini Spirit]

Is this a full fledged shopping mall, or it's a retail city? There's a difference as you know you can sell anythin in a retail city.

[Saudi Dunes]

The article says... "largest shopping and entertainment project in the Kingdom's history: Gulf Shopping City, which is due to open in late 2005 over a space of 800,000 sq m."... I'm guessing its a shopping mall, I'm just assuming that from the tone of the article, they only make references to upscale malls and high-end boutiques in the paragraphs that are available.

[Saudi Dunes]

The 107 million USD Granada Town Centre being developed in a Riyadh suburb is being touted as the largest shopping facility in the Kingdom once complete. The developers claim it will be an astounding 200,000 square meters (2,152,800 square feet) and will occupy a land plot of about 630,000 square meteres. The mall is being developed in three phases (with the first fase being what was mentioned above). The consecutive phases will depend on the success of the initial investment.

[huit]

^ is this Granada Town Centre the one which is being built on the outskirts of the city on the Riyadh Ring Rd??

[Saudi Dunes]

Yeah, is it complete yet? or are they still working on it?

[Bahraini Spirit]

The 107 million USD Granada Town Centre being developed in a Riyadh suburb is being touted as the largest shopping facility in the Kingdom once complete. The developers claim it will be an astounding 200,000 square meters (2,152,800 square feet) and will occupy a land plot of about 630,000 square meteres. The mall is being developed in three phases (with the first fase being what was mentioned above). The consecutive phases will depend on the success of the initial investment.



That amount of money isn't enough for a huge project like this, unless it's only shops that are being built. Entertainment facilities cost a lot of money, but given that there aren't cinemas, they saved around $10 million or so, but still.

[SkyFan]

Gulf Shopping City is different from Granada Mall.

Gulf Shopping City is an old shopping city and was renovated. I think it's divided into 5 or 6 shopping areas and only one of them is a real shopping mall.

[huit]

Yeah, is it complete yet? or are they still working on it?

I saw it like 3-4 months back on my way to the airport... it was under-construction then, don't know about its status now. The mall did look very cool from outside

[SkyFan]

Garanda mall is almost done. I think it will open in 2-3 months.