Reclaimed Land Retail Scheme Revs Up For Weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix

As Formula One’s top drivers prepare to speed around the famous two-mile street circuit of the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday for 78 laps, they will be racing across a European Principality that has just got a little bigger.

The latest development to rise up within the upscale Mediterranean city-cum-country, synonymous with super yachts, French glamor and high rollers has been built on reclaimed land that has upped Monaco’s land mass by around 3% and includes stores, F&B, art galleries and apartments.

Over the course of this Formula One weekend, more than 200,000 people will join the Principality’s residents, flooding in to spend an estimated $100 million before, during and after the event.

Monaco – officially the world’s second smallest country (after Vatican City) at less than one square mile – has only really been able to grow in the past through land reclamation, as the Principality has turned toward the sea to expand its territory, notably the Fontvieille district, developed between the 1960s and 1990s.

Built on reclaimed land along Monaco’s southwestern coast, Fontvieille added 22 hectares to the country and now houses residential buildings, a stadium, commercial zones, plus a marina.

More recently, Monaco embarked on what was originally called Portier Cove, with the real estate development now known as Mareterra, a scheme which started in earnest in 2016 first with reclamation adding 6 hectares of land, then real estate.

Stores For Monaco Grand Prix Crowd

With fit-outs nearing completion, the project features about 125 apartments, nearly 43,000-sq.ft. of retail and an extension of the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco’s congress center, plus public space and piazzas.

It actually could have been bigger. A larger project was originally envisaged just before the global financial crisis and was put on ice but much of the consortia for the original extension came back to the table along with U.K.-based developer Mark. It’s recent projects include redevelopment of a major area on the south side of London’s River Thames and it owns the company creating Oslo’s luxury retail quarter.

“We developed a project in Monaco in 2006, in an area called Jardin Exotique,” Mark CEO Marcus Meijer said. “So we knew the market a little bit. And in 2016 when we came on board it was a complex process, because you have to create these huge concrete cubes and a massive steel frame that you can pour the concrete into to create each one.”

The frames were built in Poland and shipped by a barge through the European river network to Marseille’s port on France’s southern coast for the contractor to pour the concrete to create 18 cubes.

Once the base was in place, it took about another three years for the real estate, which completed in fall 2024, with seven of the 10 dining units assigned, from a coffee shop to fine dining. Two art galleries have also committed, while pop-ups will appear in the other units this summer along a marina-front promenade.

“Monaco is seasonal, although it’s not as seasonal as some other places in the south of France. But definitely the spring to late summer is by far the busiest, when you have all the tourists coming in by road, boat and cruise ships,” Meijer added.

Big Spenders At Monaco Grand Prix

Among the first boutiques to open is luxury Italian menswear and bespoke tailoring retailer Stefano Ricci, while the scheme’s flagship restaurant is British cuisine inspired Marlow and 99 Sushi Bar will open soon.

It fits within a Monaco retail offer that is home to an impressive concentration of global luxury brands. In the Carré d’Or district near the Casino de Monte-Carlo, there are flagship boutiques from Hermès, Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, Cartier, and Bulgari, among others, while upscale mall Metropole Shopping Monte-Carlo hosts around 80 boutiques and Le One Monte-Carlo has a mix of luxury fashion, jewelry, and fine dining.

“Mareterra is one of the few open public spaces. Monaco is super densely populated, and we think this will increasingly become a hub for Monaco social life,” said Mark CMO Matthew Ammirati.

“This marina has a completely different feel to the port, where people can stroll, you can hear the water, you can see the boats, it creates a place that’s much more in tune with where Monaco sits on the Mediterranean.”

This weekend Monaco Grand Prix attendees will get their first taste of what’s on offer.