Abu Dhabi retail scene gets set for scale and prestige

Dubai: Abu Dhabi’s retail mix can seem pretty eclectic. Not surprising given the diversity of the emirate’s landscape, which intersperses high-density built-up city areas and sprawling off-city locations.

Now comes a relatively newer type of retail offering which are integrated into much wider mixed-use developments. This is what one will get to see when The Mall at the World Trade Centre Abu Dhabi opens its doors.

Already it has chalked up a major win in the form of the first House of Fraser in the Middle East. Altogether, The Mall will create 59,500 square metres of gross leasable space for 160 stores. “From the first House of Fraser outside the UK to the unique rooftop gardens and the extensive retail and dining offerings, we’re looking forward to the time when shoppers will be able to enjoy an unrivalled shopping experience in a beautifully designed space, all in the heart of downtown Abu Dhabi,” said David Wallace, retail mall manager at the World Trade Centre Abu Dhabi.

Indeed, the location has heritage on its side, having been the site of the emirate’s vaunted Central Market, a 12-acre single-storey structure dating from the early 1970s.

“Aldar has created a retail centre that captures both the tradition and modernity of Abu Dhabi for residents and visitors,” said Talal Al Dhiyebi, director of planning and infrastructure at Aldar Properties, the developer. “Our focus has always been on creating spaces designed to fit in with the lives of our customers and we feel that The Mall at World Trade Centre Abu Dhabi is a reflection of this philosophy.”

Abu Dhabi has got recent form in creating prestige retail clusters within a broader mixed-use offering. There is the Avenue at Etihad Towers, where a Tom Ford rubs shoulders with a Hugo Boss. If scale is what a future shopper or entertainment seeker wants in Abu Dhabi, which will be what the Yas Mall — all 296,000 square metres of pristine retail area — has in store on its opening early next year. This development will fill the gap in the Abu Dhabi retail map for a ‘super-regional mall’, and being something much more than the sum of its parts. It is a role that The Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates have been playing to pitch perfection in Dubai. “Yas Mall should rightly have a broad appeal as the first genuine regional shopping mall in Abu Dhabi; if successful, its scale should fulfil a role as a ‘super-regional mall’,” said Andrew Goodwin of Cornerstone Investment & Real Estate. “Each mall should evolve with its customer base to have a specific function in the shopping hierarchy — this can often be along social or economic trends and is usually led by the larger space users in any scheme. We have seen this in the existing malls.”

“There are some looming risks to consider for the capital’s [shopping] centre owners — this is particularly true for aging malls which will surely come under mounting pressure from new facilities offering a growing array of leisure drivers and new brands,” said Mathew Green of CBRE.