Dubai: Landmark Group is today relaunching Oasis Centre, the Dh900 million mall that has been resurrected from the ashes.

The original Oasis Centre was burned down and “completely gutted” a few years ago as an accidental fire caught hold. Plans were made soon after to re-create the mall.

The flagship mall for the group, Oasis Centre, spread out over a total area of 1.44 million square feet, will have just under 1 million square feet of retail space.

The four levels of the mall will house 77 stores, including Centrepoint, Max, Home, a new edition to the company’s profile, Q Home Décor as well as Carrefour Express, a Fitness First exclusively for women, as well as other fashion and dining outlets.

Officials said that the mall would have the largest electronic store in the country, EMax.

Vipen Sethi, chief executive of the group told Gulf News that while he construction cost was Dh600 million, the fitting out and stocking of the centre by the group was valued at Dh300 million.

The lease was signed two years ago between Micky Jagtiani, chairman of Landmark Group and Ali Soori, representative of Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman and CEO of Emirates Group.

Landmark Group, with a prominent regional presence of 11 million square feet of retail space has an annual turnover of over $2.5 billion (Dh9.2 billion), Sethi said. The company employs a 25,000-strong workforce and operates 850 stores in total in the GCC and India. Sethi said the company saw annual growth of 32 per cent at end of financial year (June last year), while this year is expected to see it slow down to 20 per cent.

The group is also investing in a mall in Alexandria, Egypt, set to launch in August this year. An injection of Dh150 to Dh200 million will be made in the project.

Local plans for the company include opening new stores is Bawadi Mall, Al Ain, Mirdif City Centre, Delma Mall, Abu Dhabi and other ventures in Saudi Arabia.

(Published by Nadia Saleem on http://www.gulfnews.com on March 28, 2009)