SHOPPING CENTRE UPDATE
How ROSHN is Integrating Retail and Communities in Saudi Arabia
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oshn Real Estate is a master developer and the largest real estate development company in the Kingdom, fully owned by the Public Investment Fund and its Board of Directors and chaired by His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. Roshn is focused on meeting the growing demand for housing in the Kingdom.
The Retail People Magazine had a one-on-one interview with Lee Talbott, Director-Retail Portfolio at Roshn Real Estate. Lee has worked in the Retail Industry for over 30 years in London, Sydney, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Shanghai and Saudi for the last 3 years. Lee has overseen the master planning and leasing of everything from community malls to Super Regional Malls including Yas Mall and Mall of Qatar for major developers including Nakheel, Aldar, Landmark, Msheireb Downtown Doha, MiSK City and now ROSHN. Let’s hear more from Lee about ROSHN and how it is integrating retail communities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Q ROSHN is becoming a household name in Saudi Arabia, but it is not so familiar across the wider Gulf Region. Can you tell us about ROSHN and their mandate? Lee: ROSHN is a private sector community development company created and owned by Public Investment Fund and was launched in August 2020. The company’s mandate is to deliver high quality integrated communities that improve the quality of life for Saudi citizens and transform urban living in the Kingdom.
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Q What kind of scale are we looking at? Lee: ROSHN has committed to making a substantial contribution to the Vision 2030 goal of reaching 70% homeownership for Saudi families. With a young population driving rapid growth in new households, we need to deliver a whole new level of supply to meet the national goals. We are currently master planning around 200 million m2 located across the Kingdom. For example, one of our first projects, Sedra in Riyadh will have over 30,000 housing units when completed.
Q What is your approach to community retail? Lee: It really starts with our whole concept of people-friendly, fully-integrated communities. Our masterplans are designed to create pedestrian-friendly public spaces and pathways, and we will be building micro-mobility into the strategy. We will be enhancing typical municipal services with additional landscaping, recycling, security, pest control and cleaning of public spaces. Each of our communities will have a whole network of pathways, play areas and small parks. In addition to a full range of public services and infrastructure, our retail hierarchy will be completely different from what is available in Saudi cities. Whereas most community retail here has been developed as strip centres on the edge of large urban blocks, ROSHN is locating clusters and plazas in the middle of neighbourhoods and districts. They are strategically
