Comments on: Amman’s New Mega-Mall is Antithesis of Sustainable Development

By: Ardent Terror

Ardent Terror — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 15:51:51 +0000

Jordan needs some world’s biggests. Ma’an is a prime location for a world’s biggest mall, hotel, water park, theme park, and cinema. Aqaba is a prime location for the world’s biggest tower, albeit no fault lines nearby, reason being, becoming thee Muslim world’s best coastal city for commerce, jobs, and industry, sitting strategically in the heart of the Maghreb, Sham, and Arabian peninsula, but also, in a greater context, strategically in the center of Europe, Africa, and Asia, with a much more milder climate than the unbearing heat beat-downs in the GCC cities. Also not too far away from Ma’an, which also has a milder climate, major tourist potential, and economic incentive programs geared for major economic growth.

By: Bisher

Bisher — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:49:40 +0000

Most of the people in Mega mall area do not have money to eat or feed their kids. I’m wondering how they are going to bring Mega spending. The good things about this project is that the mechanics in that area will get the opportunity to see beautiful girls every morning. The person who built this project is so out of touch. business should not be his passion. it is like building las Vegas beneath the sea.

By: Laurie Balbo

Laurie Balbo — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 10:27:16 +0000

sa’ada –

Right on. And you made me choke on my tea with the city mall/mecca mall observation: new to Amman, I came out of Mecca and hopped in a taxi to go to City – and the taxi driver threw me out of the cab and said “Just walk!”.

Thanks for your comment – laurie

By: sa'ada

sa'ada — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:56:11 +0000

sorry, jtr, you’ve never seen a mall until you’ve seen one of the malls in the middle east. until you see it, you would not believe just how much worse the malls are here. especially the new ones.

and some of them stand side by side. city mall and mecca mall in amman are not even 5 min walk apart. and the only appreciable difference is the grocery stores. most of the other stores (mothercare, claire’s, etc) have locations in both of the malls.

dhahran mall and rashid mall, in saudi arabia, are also only about 10 min walk apart (if you could walk between them, but khobar is not very pedestrian friendly). hayat mall and sahara mall in riyadh are right next door to each other. i’ve not seen anything like this in america. probably something to do with ammani’s comment above. i wouldn’t want to get in the way of any rich developer here, that’s for sure.

By: JTR

JTR — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:37:32 +0000

If the growing population has money to spend they’ll have plenty of customers and make a lot more money I’m sure. But the underground parking space might need air conditioning.

By: Local Resident

Local Resident — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 09:59:27 +0000

Taj Mall will actully create 2000 Much needed jobs for Jordainians and will prove to be a lovely destination for Ammanites when it’s fully open by this summer. And for your information Taj has 2000 underground Free parking spaces so there is no need for people to park on the surrounding streets.

By: JTR

JTR — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:42:19 +0000

The growing population provides the excuse for economic growth, like new shopping malls, but too much of any good thing turns it bad. Seven billion people are polluting and warming the Earth into ever more violent weather as the ice caps melt.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:56:09 +0000

@SAS – Point taken.

The article wasn’t intended as a comparison between malls, but rather as a question as to why they continue to come online in a persistently un-improved way.

By: SAS

SAS — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:48:24 +0000

Exactly why this Jordanian mall is any more or less damaging to the environment than its counterparts elsewhere in the region or elsewhere in the world is something the above article fails to adequately explain.

By: JTR

JTR — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 23:12:22 +0000

The city could organize a bike sharing system, ban all motor vehicles and create pedestrian malls. Then the smog and traffic jams would be gone and people could shop safely and happily.