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World’s Biggest Retail Zone To Come Up in Bawadi Dubai Holding has announced that it will create the world’s largest shopping area, providing 17 times more retail space than the Mall of the Emirates, currently the biggest shopping mall in Dubai. The planned retail zone will be part of Bawadi, the Dh100-billion hospitality and leisure zone in Dubailand, Dubai's Dh235-billion tourism project that will host a number of Las Vegas-style hotels and Disneyland-type theme parks. "The world's largest shopping area will offer over 40 million square feet of gross leaseable area (GLA)," a Dubai Holding statement said. Bawadi, which will have 29,000 rooms in its 31 hotels by 2016, is being developed by Dubai Holding unit Tatweer. Dubailand aims to attract 200,000 visitors per day and 15 millions visitors each year once fully developed. "The shopping area will consist of malls, boutique malls, street shopping and an underground shopping area connecting all Bawadi's elements to become the longest shopping boulevard," the statement added. His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, has instructed Bawadi to have the biggest shopping area in the world. Dubai expects the tourism sector to play a key role in Dubai Strategic Plan, which calls for an 11 per cent annual economic growth to achieve a GDP of $108 billion by 2015. "It will represent a significant platform in the development of tourism in the emirate and will underline Dubai's status as one of the world's premier family destinations," said Mohammad Al Gergawi, executive chairman of Dubai Holding. It will create a jumble of outlets that appears unprecedented even by some of Dubai's already announced massive retail and leisure ventures. THE WORLD’S LARGEST SHOPPING MALL The Mall of Arabia Vs Dubai Mall: Who’s Going to be the largest and the Best? Mall of Arabia, part of Ilyas and Mustafa Galadari Group's City of Arabia project in Dubailand, aims to be the world's biggest shopping mall with 10 million square feet of GLA upon completion. Its first phase is scheduled for completion in 2009 and will provide four million square feet of retail space. Emaar Properties is also creating a massive mall within Downtown Burj Dubai, site of the world's tallest tower. Its planned Dubai Mall will offer 3.7 million square feet of retail space in a total gross building area of 5.8 million square feet. Among Dubai's biggest existing shopping centres, Mall of the Emirates has 2.4 million square feet of retail area, Dubai Festival City has 2.1 million square feet and Ibn Battuta Mall provides 3.1 million square feet for retail and 21 cinema screens. Features of the Mall of Arabia Predicted to be the world's largest shopping mall, the Mall of Arabia will cover 10 million square feet (0.93 million square meters), have four levels and around 1,000 outlets, contain its own theater, 15-screen cinema and have parking spaces for 10 thousand cars. The retail outlets will be grouped together according to their type and will include the top brands in luxury goods, household items, consumer electronics, children’s toys, and more. Along with the retail outlets, the mall's themed zones will also contain restaurants, cafes, and entertainment outlets. The shopping mall will be circular in shape and have an ancient Middle Eastern exterior, with the vast theater and auditorium at its center. As a competition to the Mall of Arabia, the Dubai Mall being built by Emaar Propertie, as part of the 'New Dubai' project is going to be what the developers are claiming to be the largest mall in the world when completed. Features of Dubai Mall It will cover a total area of 12.1 million sq ft, with 10 - 15 individual smaller malls built inside it, consisting of 9 million sq ft of shopping retail space (comprising of a total of 1200 stores). Featured attractions include the world's largest gold souks, the 850,000 ft² Fashion Island; one of the world's largest aquariums; an Olympic-sized ice-skating rink. Oasis Fountain Waterfall; WaterFront Atrium; a view of the (soon to be completed) world's tallest building, Burj Dubai. The mall has already won five awards. It won two awards at the Retail Future Project Awards at MAPIC, Cannes, in 2004, for Best Retail Development Scheme (Large), Best Use of Lighting in a Retail Environment. The Dubai Mall brochure has won three awards at the Summit Creative Awards 2005, in Portland, Oregon; Gold award for Best Art Direction / Graphic Design, Silver award for Best 4-colour B2B Brochure, and Judges Special Recognition award. Currently, the largest mall in the world is believed to be the South China Mall in Dongguan, China, spreading over 9.6 million Nakheel to Develop 200 Shopping Malls Nakheel will develop 100 shopping malls in the next 20 years that will cater to three million-strong communities the developer is planning to build in Dubai, a top official said. The company will soon announce a major tie-up with a global retail hypermarket chain to operate supermarkets and hypermarkets, totaling 40 in the next 20 years. "We are investing billions of dirhams in malls development to strengthen our retail portfolio and with 13 million square foot retail development, we are going to become the largest shopping mall developer in the Middle East," Graham Dreverman, group managing director of Nakheel Retail, told Gulf News. "The number of shopping malls will cross 100 in the next 20 years to cater to the three million-strong communities being built by Nakheel." Nakheel Retail is the newly restructured retail arm of Nakheel - the largest UAE developer by project value, estimated at $80 billion. There are four divisions spanning shopping mall and retail brand development - Shopping Malls, RetailCorp, Hypermarkets and Food & Beverage. Nakheel Retail Shopping Malls is the retail property division of Nakheel Retail undertaking ownership, development, management, leasing and marketing of shopping malls strategically located around Nakheel's residential communities. "Among the new developments, we are constructing the Palm Mall, Palm Jumeirah - a premier retail destination on the first Palm development, to be followed by Palm Mall, Palm Deira - an enormous retailing precinct planned for the first phase of the Palm Deira. Besides, we are going to double the space of Ibn Battuta Mall through Phase II expansion." The company is also developing India Mart, which will combine the very best of Indian wholesale and retail shopping with entertainment facilities; and finally Great Mall Dubai - a 'three-in-one' mall concept at International City. Nakheel Retail Hypermarkets complements the other retail platforms dedicated to establishing an international hypermarket that will set the benchmark for the region. "We are soon going to announce a tie-up with a major global retail chain to manage hypermarkets across the GCC," he said. "We are initially looking at establishing eight hypermarkets during the first five years going to 40 in the next 20 years." Nakheel Retail Food and Beverage will target the diverse markets in the region by embracing the cuisines of the world, and will become the largest and most diverse food and beverage operator in the UAE within five years. He said the company has already acquired a South African restaurant chain that currently operates 30 outlets. "Under the Nakheel Retail Food and Beverage arm, we are planning to roll out more than 300 restaurants across Middle East and Africa region within the next five years," he said. Nakheel RetailCorp is already a dominant operator in the sports sector through various franchise and joint venture agreements with top brands. Source : GoDubai.com |
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