Despite being hobbled by sanctions, Iran is in the midst of a shopping mall boom.
Several modern shopping malls, some of them only catering for luxury brands, have opened in the capital, Tehran, in the past few years. Several more are currently under construction—with the biggest concentration being in the city’s well-heeled, tree-lined northern neighborhoods.
Yet none of those in the capital can match the size and ambition of the Isfahan City Center shopping mall on the outskirts of Iran’s fabled historic city and former capital, wrote Bloomberg.
The man who built it, Masoud Sarrami, says it is the largest shopping mall in the Middle East after the Dubai Mall, in the UAE. It contains a university, a museum, an indoor theme park and a wedding center.
When completed in 2016, Sarrami expects Isfahan City Center will also be surrounded by a five-star hotel, a healthcare “city” and a financial district.
According to Sarrami, the entire project has cost $1 billion—most of it his own money, the remainder split between an investor in the emirate of Ras Al-Khaymah and an investor based in Switzerland.
The mall-builder says he would also like to team up with foreign business figures as and when western sanctions are relaxed.
