Gulf Related will borrow 2.3 billion dirhams ($626 million) from Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank to finance the construction of a shopping mall that will house the first Macy’s store outside the U.S.
Gulf Related, a venture between Abu Dhabi’s Gulf Capital and New York-based Related Cos., announced the plan in a statement Monday. The 400-store mall, scheduled to open in 2018, is in Abu Dhabi’s new business district at Al Maryah Island, where Gulf Related built the Galleria luxury-shopping center.
“There’s a lot of malls, but in terms of malls per capita, we’re still below Dubai,” said Emile Habib, Gulf Related managing director for investments and business development. “If you look at the segment we are in, there aren’t that many.”
The terms of the 12-year facility for the mall were agreed before Gulf banks began to see surplus cash dry up because of the slump in crude prices, Habib said.-Bloomberg
