A joint venture of Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) and the local Hassan Allam Construction has been awarded the contract to build the City Centre Almaza shopping mall for UAE-based developer Majid Al-Futtaim (MAF).

The £E4bn ($510m) development will be built in Heliopolis on the north eastern quadrant of the junction between the Cairo-Suez Road and Nasr Road.

It will have 103,455 square metres of retail space with a 13,040 sq m Carrefour supermarket, a food court, 16-screen Vox cinema, a 1,800 sq m Magic Planet family entertainment centre and 4,000 parking spaces.

The mall is scheduled to open by the first quarter of 2019 and is expected to create 22,000 direct and 14,000 indirect job opportunities.

A foundation stone laying ceremony for the project was held on 14 January. It was attended by Egypt’s Minister of Investment Ashraf Salman, Housing Minister Mostafa Madbouly, and MAF executives including chief executive officer Alain Bejjani.

The mall will be MAF’s third City Centre in Egypt and is one component of its £E23bn of investments planned for the country. Other projects include another two shopping malls - Mall of Egypt and the expansion of City Centre Maadi - and four neighbourhood centres.