Galeries Lafayette to venture into Milan

French department store group Galeries Lafayette is set to open a 194,000 square foot flagship store in Milan,

within the new Westfield shopping center, slated to become Italy's biggest leisure and retail location.

The department store group reportedly signed a deal with shopping center experts Gruppo Stiles and Australian-based Westfield to open a four story retail location in the new shopping complex, which is predicted to open sometime in 2017-2018.

Galeries Lafayette currently operates stores in Berlin, Casablanca, Jakarta, Beijing and Dubai and aims to open stores in Qatar, Istanbul and Doha sometime in the future as part of its international expansion push.

Milan's Westfield shopping complex is being jointly developed by Arcus Real Estate and Westfield and is being built on a site in Segrate, roughly 10 to 20 minutes away from downtown Milan, which cost an estimated 160 million dollars (95 million pounds).

Once complete, Westfield Milan will house 300 stores, 50 restaurants, a 14 screen cinema as well as a luxury village.