Major touristic project coming to Kalamoun

Mall, cinema complex, restaurants, and hotel

Cascada Village, a new leisure and shopping center, will be developed in the North. The project will be located in Kalamoun city, at the entrance of the highway leading to the Balamand University. Construction will start as of early 2013.

The project is owned and developed by Inter Mall Group, owned by investors from the Torbay family. The Group also owns the Cascada Village in Bekaa, which will open its doors in 2013.

“The Bekaa and the North, both being vast and highly-populated areas, do not have entertainment and shopping destinations,” said Samar Akkou, leasing manager at Cascada Village.

Akkou said the Cascada Village developers have 30 years of experience in the malls industry accumulated in Latin America, mainly Venezuela: “Our expertise is in building malls and mixed-use development projects outside the main cities. With this we aim at serving unexplored markets which we believe have huge growth potential.”

Cascada Village Kalamoun will cover an area of 150,000 square meters, with a total built-up area of 250,000 square meters. It will be surrounded by 90,000 square meters of landscaped gardens.

The building consists of a two-floor shopping center with a gross leasable area of 102,000 square meters. It will host six anchor tenants with 294 retail shops, 56 jewelry shops, and two exhibition zones with a combined total area of 1,900 square meters. The mall will include a hypermarket covering an area of 9,400 square meters, as well as a 2,300-square-meter open-air marketplace.

Cascada Village Kalamoun will have 70 restaurants, with two dining halls stretching over 5,000 square meters. It will also host a bowling center, a kids' play area, and a cinema complex with eight theaters. The indoor parking space covers an area of 90,000 square meters and can accommodate up to 5,200 cars. The development will include a 20,000 square meter hotel with its accompanying facilities.

“We’d planned this project before the turmoil. However, it is good to develop projects during this period so that they would be ready to launch once the situation gets better,” said Akkou. Inter Mall Group has laid out a long-term investment plan. “We are a growing market and there is a lot of room for growth in this industry,” she said.