Sahara Center, the United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s new shopping and entertainment center, which opens February 20, as signed up two retail brands of the Al-Futtaim Group as anchor tenants. The Al-Futtaim Group will unveil the British clothing retailer Marks & Spencer and Toys R’ Us, the international toy store at Sahara Center, marking their entry into Sharjah.
The 23,000 square foot Marks & Spencer will open in the second quarter this year, with collections spanning clothing for the family, cosmetics, toiletries and food. The 15,000 square foot Toys R’ Us outlet, opening with the mall on February 20, will offer international toy brands including Barbie, Lego and Fisher-Price, as well as own-label brands Jessica, You & Me and Bruin.
“This will be the first time Toys R’ Us is opening a store within a mall in the UAE,” Al-Futtaim Retail Director Jim McCallum said. “Toys R’ Us and Marks & Spencer have proved to be hugely successful in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.”
Sahara Center, which, comprises approximately 500,000 square feet of retail space, of which over 90 percent is already leased according to a company press release, will also introduce several local, regional and international retail brands for the first time in the region. Additional anchors for Sahara Centre include Debenhams, THE One, Century Cinemas and Adventureland, the largest indoor entertainment complex in the Middle East.
Headquartered in Dubai, the Al-Futtaim Group operates a number of retail and franchise operations in the UAE and the Gulf.
Located in the Al-Nahda district of Sharjah, the 400 million Emirati dirhams ($109 million) Sahara Center project is jointly owned by Abdulrahman Bukhatir and Saeed Ghobash. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
