Dubai: Developer Dubai Holding will start construction on the first of four phases of the mega Mall of the World project next year, Chief Executive Ahmad Bin Byat said on Tuesday.
Built at a cost of nearly Dh30 billion, the first phase will cover 25 per cent of the total project and be finished by Expo 2020, Bin Byat told reporters at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
Dubai Holding had previously said the first phase would be finished by 2018 while construction was to start last year, according to reports.
The Dh80 billion Mall of the World project was first launched as one day being the world’s largest shopping destination featuring the world’s largest shopping mall. But a Bloomberg report last month quoting Chief Operating Officer Morgan Parker said the developer now favours building three malls in stages rather than one mega mall.
“Mall of the World is not downsizing. Mall of the World is actually getting resized,” Bin Byat said on Tuesday.
Dubai Holding still plans to build “the largest shopping destination in the world” but Bin Byat said it is still working out how exactly it will develop the project where initial plans also included at least 100 hotels.
“This is a very large and complex project,” he said.
The developer has not committed to a final design, Bin Byat said, with plans still under discussion as to whether it will be one mall, several malls or street shopping.
Dubai Holding, an investment vehicle of Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, will fund 30 per cent of the project — or nearly Dh30 billion — with the remaining raised externally. The developer is currently in talks with financial investors and sovereign wealth funds for the funding, Byat said.
