Sharjah to shift used car showrooms and ease residents' parking woes

Sharjah: Municipality officials confirmed on Tuesday that all the used car showrooms in Abu Shagara will be transferred to the new Auto Zone Market within two years.

The Auto Zone Market located at Riqqa Al Hamra, near Sharjah International Airport, will be constructed at a cost of more than Dh1 billion and occupy a space of 877,495 square metres.

"In response to the numerous complaints we received from residents, showroom owners and customers, we have decided to relocate the used car showrooms in order to provide more parking spaces in the city," said Dr Salah Al Hajj, Director-General of Sharjah Municipality.

The announcement was made during an open session meeting between municipality officials and over 200 car showroom owners.

"The used car market in Sharjah is the largest in the Middle East and has over 186,000 transactions per year," he said, adding that more than 440 shops are operating in Abu Shagara and Abu Danig and occupy 70 per cent of parking lots in the area.

The construction of the new Auto Market will be completed in two phases. The first phase will include 423 showrooms and car accessories, while the second will increase the number to 800 and might include labour accommodation.

Five types of showrooms will be made available to showroom owners but the average number of parking spaces for each showroom ranges between 10 and 15.

"Priority will first be given to those who already have showrooms in Abu Shagara, and later on we will extend it to new establishments," said Al Hajj, noting that car dealers will also have their showrooms there.

In response as to whether owners will have to pay high rent Al Hajj said that the area is not a profitable one and the municipality will aim to keep it at a minimum.

"But we will have to charge a rate so that we may at least compensate the cost of constructing the market."

The construction of a new car market has come at a critical time as residents have become overwhelmed by the lack of available parking spaces.

"A detailed survey was carried out from July to December 2007 and more than 200 interviews were conducted with consumers and car dealers to reach the optimum amount of space required," said Amjad Ebrahim, consultant at Khatib and Al Alami, a consolidated engineering company. .