Manaus, September 27th 2007
The company's 10th shopping and leisure centre in Brazil
Sonae Sierra Brazil launches Manauara Shopping with a € 67 million investment in Manaus
- Inauguration scheduled for the Spring of 2009
- Manauara Shopping will have more than 43 thousand m2 of GLA with 262 shops, including 11 large dimension shops
- Architectural concept inspired on the fauna, flora and folklore of the Amazon
Sonae Sierra Brazil is launching its 10th shopping and leisure centre in Brazil, Manauara Shopping, in the city of Manaus, a development that represents an investment of €67 million (R$ 175 million).
Already under construction, the new shopping and leisure centre will serve a population of about 1.5 million people, and it should create three thousand new jobs when it starts operating, which is scheduled to happen in the Spring of 2009.
Manauara Shopping will have more than 43 thousand m2 of GLA (Gross Lettable Area) and will host 262 shops, 11 of which will be large dimension shops, divided by four shopping levels.
The architectural design - by Quintela da Fonseca, Sonae Sierra's Chief Design Officer - used the fauna, flora and folklore of the Amazon as the theme, highlighting the natural light through the use of large glass ceilings and skylights on the roof, considered the "fifth façade" of the shopping centre.
In the Food Court, visitors will have a privileged view of the decks surrounding a green area of more than 3.000 m2, where the buritis (a palm tree species) were preserved and re-planted.
According to Sonae Sierra Brazil's CEO, João Pessoa Jorge, the idea is to "bring Nature" inside the development. The buritis will be located in the heart of Manauara Shopping, and will be one of the centre's main attractions.
During the construction stage, building and supervising solutions will be adopted with the purpose of obtaining the ISO 14001 environmental certification, like it was achieved, for the first time in Brazil, by Shopping Campo Limpo, developed by Sonae Sierra Brazil and inaugurated in 2006.
A Sonae Sierra Brasil has as majority partners two experienced operators in the shopping and leisure centre sector: Sonae Sierra and Developers Diversified Realty (DDR), the latter one with headquarters in the United States of America. At the moment, the company has a partakes and administers 9 shopping centres under operation: Penha, Plaza Sul, Campo Limpo and Boavista (São Paulo-SP); Pátio Brasil (Brasília-DF); Franca Shopping (Franca-SP); Tivoli Shopping (Santa Bárbara D'Oeste-SP); Shopping Metrópole (São Bernardo do Campo-SP) and Parque D. Pedro Shopping (Campinas-SP), for a total of 312.000 m2 of gross lettable area (GLA), besides the Manauara Shopping project, in Manaus (AM), with more than 43.616 m2 of GLA.
Sonae Sierra, www.sonaesierra.com, is an international shopping centre specialist, with a passion for bringing innovation and excitement to the shopping and leisure centre industry. The Company owns or co-owns 46 Shopping Centres and 1 Retail Park in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, Greece, Romania and Brazil, with a total Gross Lettable Area (GLA) of more than 1,7 million m2. Currently, Sonae Sierra is developing 12 more projects in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, Greece and Brazil, with a total GLA of more than 400.000 m2. In 2006, its centres welcomed more than 402 million visits.
PS: For further information, please contact IMAGO (Joana Vilaça, Tel.: +351 21 923 97 00)