Saudi Mall Builders Ignore Oil Rout as Young Shoppers Want More - Bloomberg Business

Saudi Mall Builders Ignore Oil Rout as Young Shoppers Want More - Bloomberg Business:

"The highway that cuts through the middle of Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital, takes drivers past two shopping malls and another one under construction, each rising up soon after the last fades in the rear view mirror.
The outlets are emblematic of a retail building boom in Saudi Arabia that continues apace even as oil, the kingdom’s dominant source of revenue, slumps. Foreign and domestic companies are betting shopping demand will rise for years, bolstered by one of the world’s youngest populations and modern retail space that’s only a fraction of that in the U.S. on a per capita basis.
Riyadh is expected to add 565,000 square meters (6.1 million square feet) of gross leasable area through 2017, while the coastal city of Jeddah is set to complete 383,000 square meters, according to broker Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. Arabian Centres Co. Ltd., the kingdom’s largest mall owner, plans 19 new shopping centers in the next five years to add to the 17 it already has, according to chief executive officer Simon Wilcock."



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