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Shopping Centers Today -> May 2004
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SAUDI ARABIA’S SERAFI MALL TO CATER TO FAMILIES
BY DEBRA HAZEL
In a land where the sexes are often segregated, family entertainment can be difficult to find. Yet the builders of Serafi Megamall, in North Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, are trying to create a retail and entertainment center where every member of a family can feel comfortable and shop, segregation notwithstanding.
The $100 million, 700,000-square-foot project, which could provide a new prototype for centers in the kingdom (among the most conservative of Muslim countries), is now under construction for a fourth-quarter opening. Men and women rarely shop together, and teen-agers are discouraged from coming to the mall at all, resulting in a significant loss of purchasing power.
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Even the center’s design is meant to accommodate families — ceilings are 50 feet high to dampen the noise of rambunctious children.
“You can sit down here and see kids on the [family] race track or bowling or playing billiards,” said Ahmed D. Shareif, a spokesman for the Jeddah-based Serafi Group, which is building the mall for Rikaz Development Co. Rikaz is the real estate investment division of HAK Group, an Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia-based company with interests in food and beverage operations, trucking and computer supplies and other activities.
The center is located at Tahliah and Sitteen streets, in the heart of commercial North Jeddah. The center’s L-shaped design contains a single, four-level retail spine, with anchors at both ends: A 16,000-square-foot Danube hypermarket is accessible both from the mall’s interior and from the outside; the other anchor will be a six-level office building on Tahliah Street.
In addition to the retail, the center will house the Funland Family Entertainment Center, Space Race (a car-racing and entertainment center for men), a 25-restaurant food court, a health and fitness center, prayer halls to accommodate more than 500 people, and sculptures and other art elements.
But don’t expect the high-fashion designers that are to be found in other projects in Saudi Arabia.
“We will not go for the very high end,” Shareif said. Rather, it will go for the middle class.
An average of 150,000 cars pass the project each day in this city of about 1.5 million people. But tourism is equally important. Jeddah City, located on the shore of the Red Sea, is Saudi Arabia’s principle seaport. It is also the chief arrival area for Muslims making pilgrimages to Mecca and Medina.
Leasing is flexible, with rents averaging about 200 riyals ($52.33) per square meter annually, Shareif says. Covered parking will accommodate 1,200 vehicles.
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