Morocco home to Africa's biggest mall

The Moroccan city of Casablanca is the country's largest, so it should come as no surprise that it is now home of the largest mall, not only in Morocco itself, but on the entire African continent.

The project is a joint venture with Moroccan group Aksal and Al Jedaie group of Saudi Arabia; it is worth $242 million and spans 10 hectares of land in the main port city overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

The goal of the mall is to draw in around 14 million visitors each year, consequentially creating 5,000 direct jobs and 21,000 indirect ones, according to developers.

"The main idea was to build a mall for people where all Moroccans and tourists who come to Morocco can feel as if the mall is becoming part of their experience. For Moroccans, it is almost like an extension of their living room. For tourists, it is another reason to say that Morocco is quite a unique country. It is not only the old traditions of the Medina, the surprise, the souks, the markets that you have there with their smells and the spices, the beautiful colors, but is also a sign of modernity," said mall architect Davide Padoa.

The mall houses about 600 international brands, from high-end fashion shops to restaurants, as well as an aquarium, an ice rink, and the continent's first IMAX cinema.

Speaker:
Davide Padoa -- mall architect

By Noora Faraj
Al Arabiya with Agencies

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• morocco
• casablanca
• morocco mall
• shopping morocco
• tourism morocco
• port city morocco
• north africa shopping
• mall architect padoa
• askal group morocco
• al jedaie group
• biggest mall africa
• noora faraj
• alarabiya english

[riotofdablood]

Sadly, people are still dying of cold in the Atlas mountains.

[mtsaddas]

Yeee

[mahmiomar]

@Arsene1231 Let me correct you.

"Gateway Theatre of Shopping"(It's not called Gateway Mall Durban) : 180,000m²

Morocco Mall: 250,000m²

[amine52000]

@Arsene1231 10 hectares

[Arsene1231]

@mahmiomar

Gross lettable area of Gateway Mall Durban: 150.000m²

Gross lettable area of Morocco Mall : 70.000m²

[mahmiomar]

@Arsene1231 Gateway Mall in South Africa WAS the largest shopping mall in Africa Until about 5 days ago when Morocco Mall opened.

Next time get your facts right before posting on youtube

[Arsene1231]

Gateway Mall SA is the largest shopping mall in Africa.

[arouhal73]

This is only the beginning.Morocco is on the right track to become one of the greatest

countries in ever aspect of modernity.May God bless Morocco.