Konoz Box of Jewels, Al Othaim, KSA

Impact

The insight and output from Pragma’s work has informed the on-going development of the scheme, which will align with the newly developed Riyadh Metro, which features stations designed by Zaha Hadid Architects and Snøhetta, among others.

About the Brand

Abdullah Saleh Ali Al-Othaim is a Saudi businessman and the chairman and founder of both Abdullah Al-Othaim Markets, one of Saudi's largest retail companies, and Al-Othaim Investment. Operating close to 200 stores across KSA, Al Othaim markets has strong reputation within the market and now successfully trades as a publicly listed, having ranked in the top 200 companies in the Arab World. Al Othaim investments meanwhile manage and operate 12 malls throughout the Kingdom, with further developments underway.

The Task

Having secured a key site on Riyadh’s ‘Golden Strip’, Al Othaim wished to develop a world-class mixed-use development, fully aligned with the aspirations of the 2030 vision and providing the variety, quality and inspiration demanded for such a prime location. Pragma was instructed, alongside sister company Benoy, to design and deliver a vision for how the scheme could deliver the attractive, walkable district that would create a key difference to existing and planned enclosed mall, whilst still providing the depth of commercial provision required to generate strong investment returns.

What we did

Pragma worked closely with the Benoy and Al Othaim teams to:

• Identify the client’s scale of ambition, in light of the 2030 and local, national and international competition and to understand the project timeframes, measures of success and phasing
• Segment the addressable audience between the captive audience – and the provision demanded and that would be justified by the proposed 250 room luxury hotel, 120 serviced apartments, 700 private sale apartments and the office workers from both the immediate and surrounding developments – and the catchment audience – taking into account projections of population and spend growth, changing consumer attitudes and behaviours and the impact of the additional schemes under development in Riyadh that will be vying for consumer and occupier attention
• Identify gaps in existing and planned provision and, with reference to global benchmarking, identify the strategies, developments, uses and brands that would deliver against the client’s success criteria
• Create both an evidence-base and insights in regard to the target commercial proposition and user experience to inform the pre-concept masterplan and provide high-level guidelines on the theming and characteristics of retail, food and beverage and entertainment facilities
• Develop the commercial strategy through market sizing and assessment of commercial potential to form a distinct commercial proposition and user experience
• Provide detailed guidelines on space composition, category mix and range of activities
• Carry out plan option evaluation, to help refine the sizing, distribution and adjacencies of uses, units and experiences