Mall of Sharjah: Bigger than City Centre

Majid Al Futtaim (MAF), a Dubai-based shopping mall and leisure conglomerate, will be building the Mall of Sharjah, as it continues to scout for land to initiate its foray into Abu Dhabi retail sector.

“We are excited about our shopping centre in Sharjah… it will be another city centre project and our expectation is that it will be bigger than our existing City Centre in size,” George Kostas, Chief Executive Officer, Majid Al Futtaim Properties, told Emirates 24l7.

The new city centre is expected to be completed in the next four years.

MAF will be spending Dh200 million for expansion of Sharjah City Centre, adding nearly 13,500 square metres of gross leasable area to incorporate 28 new shopping and dining options. The project is expected to start by mid-2014.

Earlier this year, the company announced a redevelopment project worth Dh1 billion for its Mall of the Emirates followed by a Dh22 million redevelopment plan of Deira City Centre.

Abu Dhabi foray

Kostas revealed that MAF was still ambitions to have a presence in Abu Dhabi, but has not found the right site or the right opportunity to enter the capital.

“We have ambitions to have a presence in Abu Dhabi, but for whatever reasons we haven’t been able to find the right site or the opportunity… we are not there now, but we would love to,” he asserted.

New logo unveiled

MAF, which was founded in 1992, on Tuesday unveiled a new brand identity which unites its diverse group of companies under one umbrella.

The all-encompassing brand strategy adopts the iconic symbol of “M” across the visual identity of the company’s brands to create a unifying mark of excellence across its assets such as City Centre Malls, VOX Cinemas, Carrefour, Magic Planet, Mall of the Emirates, etc.

Iyad Malas, Chief Executive Officer, Majid Al Futtaim Holding, said: “This exercise will reinforce the Majid Al Futtaim name behind the unique experiences and brands that are intertwined into the lives of 250 million people who experience our brands each year, yet still allow for each brand to have a strong sense of visual individuality.”

$5b investment planned

The timing for the rebrand comes as MAF embarks on an extensive expansion into new markets in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region and beyond.

“We will be investing $1 billion every year over the next five years to meet our expansion plans. We expect to double the size of our business by 2018, which has doubled every five years for the past 20 years,” Malas said.

The company’s expansion will be driven by new malls opening in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, residential projects in Lebanon, hypermarkets, cinemas, family entertainment centres and snow park openings across the Mena region.

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