Galeries Lafayette continued its push into new territory, opening a store in a freshly built mall in Marseille, France. The new 100,000-square-foot store stretches over four floors and serves as the anchor to the modern, glass-covered Prado shopping centre. It is the second Galeries Lafayette store in the city for the retailer. "The Galeries Lafayette Marseille Prado store perfectly matches our ambition to make our stores living spaces, genuine homes in which our clients are our guests and in which we offer them the best of our fashion know-how," said Olivier Bron, operations director for the group.

The Prado centre sits near an affluent section of France's second largest city, not far from the Orange Vélodrome -France's second-largest stadium- known to host high-profile soccer and rugby matches, as well as an exhibition centre. In addition to traffic flows generated by sports events, the developer hopes to tap into demand for food in the neighbourhood, with a rooftop terrace and a half a dozen restaurants, and French grocer Auchan which will open a specialty food store stocked with local and regional produce.

read press release of Galeries Lafayette Marseille Prado new store

see video of the construction of galeries lafayette marseille prado store