DUBAI: As retailers wrestle with changing markets, online orders and declining global growth, shopping mall magnate Kenneth A. Himmel has a refreshing outlook.

He doesn’t care.

“The reality is, everyone would hope that the market will grow at 5 to 7 per cent and everyone will share in the uptake,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of the World Retail Congress on Wednesday. “But the reality is that only the best projects are going to realise their goals.”

Himmel, the president and CEO of Related Urban and managing partner of Gulf Related, does not believe the UAE retail market is saturated.

“Just to say there’s too much retail, how about how much quality retail?” he said. “How much exciting retail, how much good architecture, how much great merchandising, how much good family entertainment and how much good food and beverage exists in these projects? That’s a very thin amount of square footage — very thin.

“I could tell you the top 10 markets in the US and argue for the next 15 years we don’t need more retail. It’s about distinguishing yourself from the competition.”

Himmel said Gulf Related’s 3.1 million square foot Al Maryah Central shopping, residential and leisure complex in Abu Dhabi is currently just short of 50 per cent leased. He hopes to hit 70 to 75 per cent by the end of this year, and would like to see the project at least 90 per cent leased by the time it opens in spring 2018.

He is not relying on a resurgence in global or regional growth to hit those targets.

“What I’m counting on is ultimately the new airport opening,” he said, “I’m counting on Emirates and Etihad having made the largest orders of aircraft anywhere in the world. I’m counting on the fact that they are going to market this country and these cities and they are going to market themselves significantly, and we are delivering a reason why people will come here.”

Himmel is keen to distinguish the $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) Al Maryah Central project from its neighbours, including Gulf Related’s neighbouring The Galleria, which opened in 2013.

Central, he says, will be a luxury complex, rather than The Galleria’s high-end luxury. Yas Mall he classes as mid-market.

Nor does he intend to try to rival Dubai Mall’s Aquarium or Mall of the Emirates’ ski slope, instead looking to sports and family areas to support licensed restaurants associated with the centre’s three hotels, and event-driven department stores — Central will feature Bloomingdales and the region’s first Macy’s.

“We didn’t try to get competitively funky with them. We’re not getting cute. It’s Abu Dhabi. The amount of tourism here is limited, but eventually it will come up.

“I’ve got a centre that’s going to draw 20 million people a year, compared to 40 or 50 million a year coming to Dubai Mall. Our audience in Abu Dhabi is well heeled [with] very deep, very broad purchasing power. There is a lot of buying power in Abu Dhabi. People say no one’s going to stay in Abu Dhabi, they’re going to be constantly drawn to Dubai. Not so. Already we are seeing it in The Galleria — luxury shoppers spend a lot of money here with us. The same thing’s going to happen when we open [Central]. People are going to find they don’t have to drive an hour and a half for this kind of experience.”

Whether global growth picks up before Al Maryah Central’s 2018 opening or not, Himmel appears focused on the long term.

“If you look at the projects we have developed over the last 30 years, every single market we have gotten into, wither it be Chicago at Michigan Avenue, Boston Copley Place, Nordstrom’s headquarters in Seattle, go to the projects 25 years after we’ve opened them we’re still the number one traffic generator on the projects we deliver.

“So there’s a distinction in how you do things; we like to distinguish ourselves.”