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Shop talk
Saudi Arabia is the largest retail market, and one of the fastest growing markets for consumer products, in the Middle East. The Al Hokair Group is in charge of one of the biggest mall networks as well as being a leader in the fashion retail market. Its mall manage- ment arm, Arabian Centres, has a network of 11 operational malls, managing almost one million square metres of prime retail real estate. The malls have a combined gross lettable area (GLA) in excess of 700,000 square metres, about 30 percent of the total mall GLA in Saudi Arabia. Fawaz Al Hokair plans to develop 12 additional malls by 2014, adding more shopping complexes to Saudi's most developed cities. The company also wants to open 100 stores on average per year until 2014, through which they expect revenues to grow by 12.7 percent annually. Dubai-based MAF Shopping Malls has taken its City Centre shopping mall brand into Saudi Arabia through a joint venture with Al Ghazzawi Group. Among the projects is a US$29 million shopping centre called Jeddah Riviera Mall. The 93,000-square-metre complex will host more than 300 retail outlets, including a Carrefour.
The planned economic cities will include further retail investments. The Savola Group, which currently administers 14 Saudi shopping malls, signed a memorandum of understanding for the first phase of retail development at Medina's Knowledge Economic City. This will cov- er more than 100,000 square metres, in a deal worth US$133 million, and will include a hypermarket and more than 300 stores. Furthermore, there are plans for a second phase to expand the city's retail space by an additional 300,000 square metres.
Infrastructure
In terms of infrastructure, Emaar the Economic City (EEC) and DP World have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) Sea Port in Jeddah. The Sea Port is one of the six key components of the 168-million-square-metre KAEC, and it will be the largest port in the Red Sea and one of the top 10 ports in the world. A multipurpose cargo terminal was scheduled to be operational by end of 2010 and a 1.6 million TEU container terminal by mid-2011, after which the capacity of the port will be increased in several phases. Currently, there are sea ports at Jeddah, Dammam, Jubail Industrial, Yanbu, Jizan and Dhiba.
Saudi Arabia also has three international airports: King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh; King Abdul-Aziz International Airport in Jeddah; and King Fahd International Airport in Dhahran. Other major regional developments include Saudi Arabia's King Abdul Aziz airports in Madinah and Tabuk, which will total US$11.3 billion in investment.
Further transport investments include a high-speed rail link, which will run between Islam's holy cities of Makkah and Madinah via the commercial hub of Jeddah.
The new rail link aims to transport an estimated 10 million Umrah and Hajj pilgrims every year. It includes the construction of approximately 500 km of high-speed electric railway lines between the three cities.
The network is part of a massive Kingdom-wide railway project, which also involves the construction of 950 kilometres of new track between Riyadh and Jeddah, and another 115 km of track between Dammam and Jubail.
So far there is little dedicated meetings space but there are plans to build several new facilities. Today's key facilities are in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam. New units include Al-Qassim University, which has plans in place to build a major conference centre. This centre would include a 2,500-seat auditorium and 5,000 square metres of exhibition space, making it a cen- trepiece of the university.
The Jeddah International Exhibition Centre was announced as part of an intended redevelopment of the airport, but there are no fixed plans as yet. Furthermore, the Dhahran International Exhibi- tion Centre has plans for a new 5,000-square-metre exhibition hall.
saudiarabia 2011
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