{"id":21558,"date":"2023-02-22T19:52:06","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T19:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/?p=21558"},"modified":"2023-02-23T05:52:52","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T05:52:52","slug":"riyadh-to-house-mega-mall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/2023\/02\/22\/riyadh-to-house-mega-mall\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mukaab project in Riyadh to house giant shopping mall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- VideographyWP Plugin Message: Automatic video embedding prevented by plugin options. --><br \/>\n<span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/2023\/01\/09\/good-news-for-retailers-as-saudi-arabia-relaxes-local-headquarters-rules\/\">Saudi Arabia<\/a> has announced plans to build an immersive <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">400 cubic metre shopping centre at the upcoming Mukaab development in Riyadh.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Part of\u00a0the wider <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newmurabba.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New Murabba<\/a> project, the <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">development will house 980,000 square metres of retail space.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, Yasser Elsheshtawy, told <em>Arab News<\/em>: \u201cThere is a tendency among Western and Arab observers to dismiss such projects out of hand, describing them as acts of folly, and the outcome of people with too much money.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cBut if we look at it objectively, it is much more than that. Having been involved with one of the teams that were invited to compete for the project, I can attest that there is serious thinking involved in such schemes.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Its designers claim the world&#8217;s largest downtown area will &#8216;offer a unique living, working [and] entertainment experience within a 15-minute walking radius and will have its own internal transport system&#8217;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">This move aligns with the Saudi government&#8217;s efforts to diversify its economy and lessen its dependency on oil. It is estimated that the project would contribute SAR 180 billion to non-oil GDP.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The landmark shopping centre of the project will be focused on &#8216;promoting healthy, active lifestyles and community activities&#8217;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The project is expected to showcase holographic imagery and sci-fi decoration to reflect the Saudi Vision 2030.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The New Murabba project is expected to be completed by 2030.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cFor one, it will provide a unique and unprecedented experience utilising the latest technological advances in virtual reality,&#8221; added Mr Elsheshtawy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;Visitors entering the Mukaab will encounter projections of varying landscapes, which will also be seen from the apartments comprising a spiral tower in the middle of the cube. Furthermore, it will provide Riyadh with a unique icon that will make the city instantly recognisable among other world cities.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saudi Arabia is set to unveil a mega shopping mall at the upcoming Mukaab development in Riyadh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":21559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,1],"tags":[4768,3958],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21558"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21558"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21570,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21558\/revisions\/21570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meretailnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}