Shadiya Rasoul
SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region — Two massive shopping malls are slated to open in Iraqi Kurdistan’s second-largest city, Sulaimani, by the end of the year, developers say.
Family Mall and Majidi Mall, two of the most popular malls in the Kurdistan Region’s capital, Erbil, are being developed in Sulaimani at a cost of $100 million each. The high-end malls are the main locations in Iraq where consumers can find international chain stores and genuine brand-name designs, making them popular with wealthier Kurdistan Region residents as well as tourists.
Darin Group, the owner of Family Mall, decided to open branches in Sulaimani and Duhok following the mall’s success in Erbil, Darin Group Director-General Mala Shini Bashir said. Family Mall in Erbil opened in December 2010, and grocery giant Carrefour has been there since late 2011.
Family Mall in Sulaimani will be similarly designed as the 200,000 square-meter mall in Erbil. Sixty percent of the shops are already rented in the Sulaimani mall, a $100 million project that is expected to open its doors in late 2014, Bashir said.
“People who have bought or rented shops aren’t just locals: there are Turks, Iranians, Europeans and Asians,” Bashir said. “They’ve signed a contract with the owner of the mall to bring international brands,” Bashir said.
The Kurdish firm Halabja Group is also a developer of Family Mall in Sulaimani.
Investments have poured into Iraq and especially the Kurdistan Region since the Baathist regime, which saw its economy crippled under United Nations sanctions, was ousted in 2003.
Investment and development has soared in Iraqi Kurdistan since 2006, when the region’s liberal investment law gave tax breaks and other perks including allowing international firms to develop and even own property in the region. Iraqi Kurdistan has also been relatively sheltered from the violence that has wracked the rest of Iraq, making it ripe for development.
Family Mall’s major competitor, the $100 million Majidi Mall in Sulaimani, is also under construction on the outskirts of the city and is slated to open by the end of 2014.
Farman Gharib, head of the government’s Investment Board in Sulaimani, said Majidi Mall is being built by Hiwa Group and will mimic its sister shopping center in Erbil but with more indoor activities. As in Gulf countries, malls are popular destinations for families in Iraq.
“Establishing modern shopping centers is a necessity for cities,” Gharib said. “We want to have well-known international brands in our shopping malls. It’s hard for local businesses to convince international brands to come to Kurdistan, so we’ve given permission to rent out shops to foreigners.”
While Family Mall and Majidi Mall’s shops have heavy foreign ownership, they have also created hundreds of jobs for local and foreign workers.
