One of Doha's long-awaited luxury malls has opened to shoppers, as retail and infrastructure spending is forecast to surge across Qatar.
After experiencing several construction delays, Lagoona, a 128,000 square-metre mall in Doha's upmarket West Bay district, has 70 per cent of store space operating and is expected to be fully leased by the end of the year.
"I'm now very positive about the whole programme," said Eamon Kelly, the general manager for Lagoona. "We are catering for a very, very high-end customer. It's not unheard of for people to go into a mall and drop Dh750,000 [US$204,000] on a watch or jewellery."
A couple of years late in opening, the mall now aims to attract Qataris and high-earning expatriates predominantly from two affluent and growing residential and commercial areas - Lagoona and Pearl.
One of Doha's flagship developments that is being built out to sea, Pearl is less than 1km from the mall and will eventually house 40,000 residents. So far, homes for 15,000 have been built.
The Lagoona area of Doha would be home to 30,000 Qataris, said Mr Kelly. "When you look at the whole Doha market, unlike Dubai, which has a strong market aimed at inbound tourists, we will depend on the local market of about 250,000 Qataris."
Qatar is still some way behind the UAE in terms of total retail and mall space, but the country's GDP per capita is the highest in the world, providing a huge opportunity for retailers.
GDP per capita was $97,000 last year, according to the IMF, and the population is expected to grow from 1.7 million to 2.1 million in 2016, as the country invests in infrastructure ahead of the 2022 Fifa World Cup.
Mr Kelly said demand was initially high in the mall for luxury products such as Rolex and Boucheron as local Qataris venture abroad and experience luxury products from Europe.
"These are strong brands that we really need to help develop this luxury process," he said. "[Qataris] are very brand-conscious. They travel quite often and really are brand savvy. Brands that launch here have generally been very successful. For example, Rolex is in tremendous demand."
The home-grown Qatari company Fifty One East, the mall's anchor tenant, is now one of the biggest luxury multi-brand superstores in the Middle East. The company has taken a 13,000 sq metre space.
Fifty One East has tie-ins with brands such as Chanel, Calvin Klein, Rolex, Michael Kors and Dior.
Doha has just under 500,000 sq metres of retail space, compared with just under 2,500,000 sq metres in Dubai and half that of Abu Dhabi, according to the property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle.
Lagoona, configured with two levels, is a project by Darwish Holding, one of Doha's major developers. The mall will eventually open 160 retail outlets and have 18 restaurantson a 22,000 sq-metre European-style piazza on a man-made lagoon.
"We have been very particular about the brands we lease to because we are trying to introduce brands that have not been to Doha before," said Mr Kelly. "We are not looking to replicate luxury brands."
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