The largest of Sharjah’s planned malls, the Sahara Center, is scheduled to open February 20, 2002, with 170 small shops, a 12-screen multiplex cinema, a 10-vendor food court and Adventure City, an 80,000-square-foot indoor amusement park. The 400 million Emirati dirham ($108.9 million) project is jointly owned by businessmen Abdulrahman Bukhatir and Saeed Ghobash.
Located in the Al-Nahda district of the emirate of Sharjah, the total built-out area of the mall will be one million square feet. The mall comprises some 500,000 square feet of retail space, of which over 85 percent has already been leased, according to a company release.
Among the retailers who have chosen Sahara Center is Jashanmal’s Casa Mia store, presenting 6,391 square feet of products for the home. “Casa Mia’s success in Kuwait and Bahrain leads us to believe that our first stand alone store in the UAE will be a success. Casa Mia is not just a one stop shop for unusual home décor, it will cater to our UAE customers who are very home conscious and demand a high standard of quality and service,” said Gangu Batra, Jashanmal National Company CEO.
The Sahara Center will also introduce several retail brands for the first time in the region. Anchors for Sahara Center include the European retail store Debenhams, which forms part of the AlShaya Group, and features international brands like Liz Claiborne, Oasis, Evans and Laura Ashley. Century Cinemas and Adventureland, the largest indoor entertainment complex in the Middle East, are the other key anchors in the mall. — (menareport.com)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
