Dubai: The post-mall evolution of the UAE's retail landscape has finally reached Sharjah.
With Dubai and, to a less extent Abu Dhabi, trending towards neighbourhood shopping centres, Sharjah is all set to get its own brand in the space.
Doing the honours is Sharjah Holding, a joint venture between the Sharjah Government and Majid Al Futtaim Properties, which will roll out the Matajer shopping centres in select locations in the emirate.
The unveiling of the new brand and the first venture — the Matajer Al Quoz — took place yesterday. "Although there is a strong retail culture in Sharjah, the primary focus has been on the larger malls while the development of the neighbourhood market has been somewhat neglected," said Walid Al Hashemi, CEO of Sharjah Holding.
The neighbourhood or community shopping centre is the organic offshoot of all the real estate development activity recorded in the country over much of the last decade. New residential and commercial clusters create a captive consumer base for having nearby retail facilities. And the scale of these projects — neither too big nor too small — and the easy access they offer are attracting new shoppers by the day.
New players
Simultaneously, mall visits have become a weekly or twice weekly occurrence for shoppers.
Dubai has already seen the trend manifest itself at all of the leading communities. In fact, apart from the established supermarket majors, the trend attracted a slew of new players.
It's Sharjah's turn now to plug into the changing face of retail.
"We saw a real opportunity to bring the best of what Majid Al Futtaim Properties offers in its larger malls to the local community and I am delighted to say that this vision is coming to fruition," said Al Hashemi. "Sharjah Holding is focused on supporting communities through the delivery of family-orientated, high-quality developments and Matajer is a central component of this."
The typical sizes for the Matajer centres range from 20,000 to 80,000 square feet, with around 50 per cent taken up by the supermarket operator.
Carrefour will assume the role for the four Matajer facilities in the development pipeline.
The rest of the space will be taken up by a ‘blend of high-quality retail and services'. "Sharjah Holding is able to offer consumers convenient access to fresh produce, well-known brands and essential services at the heart of their communities, saving them the valuable time and effort required to drive to and navigate around a larger centre," the CEO said.
Other tenants will be announced once the development process has begun. According to the promoters, the Matajer Al Quoz facility will serve a local area of approximately 16 square kilometres and 5,000 households. The management of the Matajer locations will be handled directly by Sharjah Holding.
"In addition to the first four centres under development, we have a further four to six planned for the coming years and working closely with the Sharjah Government to source out other locations to meet the growing demand for community retail," said Al Hashemi.
"We are getting regular calls from local communities asking us to develop in their area and a number of major retailers have committed to leasing space in our centres. There is definitely growth potential," he added.
Economic model
With the Sharjah Government and Majid Al Futtaim Properties as shareholders, Sharjah Holding was set up in 2008 to create an economic model beneficial to both. Shareholders are equally represented on the board of directors.
"Our initial focus is on delivering high-quality neighbourhood retail to the residents of Sharjah," said Walid Al Hashemi of Sharjah Holding. "For all our centres, we carry out thorough market research during the planning phase to assess which retailers would be best suited to the local community and adapt our leasing strategy accordingly."
