Large
shopping malls provide a one-stop shopping for
anything imaginable. Our list of largest malls
in the world is based on the amount of “Gross
Leasable Area”.
This
is the number of squar feet the property has
for revenue-generating activities like retail,
dining and amusements. The building boom in
Asia, where land is cheap and labor costs are
low has produced the largest shopping malls.
Only two shopping malls on this list are
located outside Asia.
10:
Siam Paragon (3.22 million sq ft)
Siam
Paragon in Bangkok is one of the largest
shopping malls in Thailand. Only the nearby
CentralWorld is larger. It includes a wide
range of specialty stores and restaurants as
well as a multiplex movie theater, the Siam
Ocean World aquarium, the Thai
Art Gallery and an opera concert hall. It also
has a large bowling alley and
karaoke center.
9:
Berjaya Times Square (3.44 million sq ft)
Located
in Kuala Lumpur, Berjaya Times Square is a
twin tower complex containing a shopping
centre and two five star hotels. With 7.5
million square feet (700,000 m²) of built up
floor area it is currently the fifth largest
building in the world.
It
includes more than 1,000 retail shops, 65 food
outlets and several entertainment attractions
such as Asia’s largest indoor theme park,
Cosmo’s World and Malaysia’s first-ever IMAX
2D & 3D theatre which is located on the
10th Floor.
8:
Istanbul Cevahir (3.47 million sq ft)
Located
on the European side of Istanbul, the Cevahir
Shopping and Entertainment Centre opened its
doors in 2005. It is the largest shopping mall
in Europe.
There
are 343 shops, 34 fast food restaurants and 14
exclusive restaurants in the shopping centre.
Other facilities include a large stage for
events, 12 cinemas, a bowling hall, a small
roller coaster and several other entertainment
facilities.
7:
SM Megamall (3.6 million sq ft)
Opened
in 1991, SM Megamall in Metro Manila is one of
the largest shopping malls in the Philippines.
The mall attracts a daily foot traffic of
800,000 people with a maximum capacity of 4
million people.
The
mall has two main buildings. Building A
features cinemas, a bowling alley, food courts
and the Toy Kingdom. Building B features the
retail shops. The bridgeway connecting the two
main buildings of the mall contains several
eateries.
SM
Megamall is currently under major renovation
and expansion. When finished, it will be able
to claim the ultimate title of largest
shopping mall in the Philippines.
6:
West Edmonton Mall (3.77 million sq ft)
The
West Edmonton Mall in Alberta was the largest
shopping mall from 1981 until 2004 and is
currently the largest mall in the Americas.
Beside
800 stores and services the mall includes the
largest indoor amusement park in
the world, the largest indoor waterpark
in the world and Ice Palace (a scaled down
version of a NHL regulation sized ice rink, so
not the largest in the world). Other
attractions include an 18-hole miniature
golf course, a movie theatre
and a bowling alley.
5:
Dubai Mall (3.77 million sq ft)
The
Dubai Mall is part of the Burj Khalifa
complex, the tallest man-made structure ever
built. At over 12 million square feet
(equivalent in size to more than 50 soccer
fields), the Dubai Mall is the largest
shopping mall in the world based on total area
but about the same size as the West Edmonton
Mall if based on leasable space.
The
mall contains more than 1,200 shops including
the world’s largest candy store,
an ice rink, a SEGA game center (featuring a
3D bowling game), a 5 star luxury hotel,
22 cinema screens plus 120 restaurants and
cafes. The mall also contains one of the
largest aquariums in the world.
4:
SM Mall of Asia (4.2 million sq ft)
The
SM Mall of Asia in Metro Manila, opened in
2006, consists of four buildings
interconnected by walkways. It features a
20-seater tram which takes shoppers around the
mall grounds.
One
of the mall’s main attractions is an IMAX
theater with one of the world’s biggest 3D
screens. The mall also features an
Olympic-sized ice skating rink.
It can accommodate both recreational and
competitive figure skating, as well as ice
hockey.
3:
Central World (4.62 million sq ft)
Opened
in 1990, the eight-story CentralWorld is the
largest shopping mall in Thailand. It marketed
itself as a middle class shopping center,
opposed to the upper class-marketed Siam
Paragon.
On
19th May of this year, CentralWorld was one of
the many properties set on fire by antigovernment
protestors. The fire raged for two days and
the Zen department store collapsed in the
fire.
After
months of repair works, the
shopping complex reopened on 28th September
with 80% of its retail space open for
business.
2:
Golden Resources Mall (6.0 million sq ft)
At
1.5 times the size of the Mall
of America, Golden Resources Mall was the
world’s largest shopping mall from 2004 to
2005. Although the developer of the mall
initially estimated that the mall would have
50,000 shoppers a day, as of 2004 the actual
number was far smaller, as few as 20 in an
hour.
One
problem was that prices of most items sold
were far beyond the purchasing ability of most
ordinary Chinese. Another barrier was the
inaccessibility of Golden Resources Shopping
Mall to foreign consumers due to its location
outside the heart of Beijing.
1:
New South China Mall (6.46 million sq ft)
New
South China Mall
in Dongguan is the largest mall in the world
based on gross leasable area. The mall
features seven zones modeled on international
cities including a replica of the Arc de
Triomphe and a canal with gondolas.
It
also has an indoor-outdoor roller coaster.
What is doesn’t have is customers. Since its
opening in 2005, the mall has suffered from a
severe lack of occupants.
Much
of the retail space has remained empty,
