Drive along Gulf Road these days and Souq Sharq looks the way you remember it from outside: the yellow wind towers, the arches, the marina with yachts lined up. You might assume it is open. It is not. The mall has been closed since the start of this year, and all its shops have moved out.
Did everything close?
No — and this is the most practical point in the whole matter.
The eviction decision issued in November 2025 gave tenants until 31 January 2026 to clear their units. But the decision explicitly excluded the fish market and the marina. The closure covers the mall — the shops, the restaurants and the internal walkways — and not the whole waterfront.
In other words: the shops you used are gone; the fish market and the marina were not covered by the eviction order.
Why it closed
Souq Sharq is not owned by a company. The land and the buildings belong to the state, and it was run under a twenty-year operating contract signed in 1998 with the National Real Estate Company. The contract was non-renewable, expired in 2018, and provided for the buildings to return to the state on expiry.
A long dispute followed, after which the Ministry of Finance recovered the site. It was managed temporarily by Wafra Real Estate on the state’s behalf, then put out to public tender and won by a new operator, United Real Estate Company, on a sixteen-year contract signed in May 2026: one year for design and refurbishment, and fifteen years of operation.
So the closure is not a maintenance decision by an owner but the end of one contract and the start of another.
What is being built
Work has actually started. In June 2026 the construction contract was awarded, running around eighteen months, covering civil works, refurbishment, infrastructure, landscaping and development of the marina facilities.
What is officially documented among the changes:
- A marina for larger yachts — expanding the existing marina to take bigger vessels, with dedicated maritime facilities.
- An upgraded fish market — the market originally excluded from the eviction will be refurbished within the project.
- Renewed retail and leisure space across a leasable area of around 35,000 square metres.
- A rooftop solar plant of 8.77 megawatts, under an agreement signed in July 2026 and described as the first of its kind in Kuwait’s private sector.
And one point worth stating plainly: a good deal is being said about new sections and added shopping space. There is so far no official source referring to an expansion in built area or to new wings. What is documented is refurbishment and renewal, not expansion.
When does it open
There is no announced opening date, from the state or from the operator.
What can be inferred is the contract timing itself: a full year for design and refurbishment from handover, then an eighteen-month construction contract awarded in June 2026, and a solar plant due for completion at the end of 2027. Taken together, the end of 2027 looks like the realistic horizon. But that is an inference from published schedules, not an announced opening.
What this means for you
The site runs about 2.7 kilometres along the shore. What is happening is not the refurbishment of a mall but the reconnection of the shops, the marina, the fish market and the waterfront into a single project under one operator on a long contract.
In practice, until at least the end of 2027: no shopping at Souq Sharq. The fish market and the marina were not covered by the eviction order, but construction is under way on the site, so it is worth checking before setting off. And when it opens, it will not open in the form you remember.
Photo: Souq Sharq and the marina, December 2022 — by Zairon via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Further reading: United Real Estate Company disclosures to Boursa Kuwait (21 May and 18 June 2026) · Arab Times · Kuwait Times · Zawya
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