DUBAI Visitors to Festival City Mall now have an added attraction in an all-new Festival Square, unveiled amidst great fanfare during a long weekend of fun activities.
Thousands of lucky visitors walked away with great prizes and rewards on May 14 when the mall’s main atrium space was officially declared open to all. When the red curtains went up for the first time to reveal the mall’s latest expansion, one thing that drew everybody’s attention was a giant cutout of the festival city waterfront with the towering Burj Khalifa in the backdrop.
“I haven’t seen anything like this before here in Dubai and this has to be the biggest depiction of a Dubai landscape,” said Trevor Haas, a German tourist visiting the mall. With a boat and a jet plane to ride on in front of the stunning scenery, many like Haas even made full use of a unique photo opportunity.
Fresh beginning
The event also saw the opening of several new retail stores as part of Dubai Festival City’s ongoing Dh1.2 billion expansion programme.
Mohammad Razawi, 35 who owns Flowers Damour, a kiosk for fresh flowers and decorations and one of the first shops to move into the square, said he was excited about making a fresh beginning. “The crowd interest has been massive since the launch and I am hoping more and more people will now come to buy flowers from us,” Razawi told XPRESS. The Syrian sold about 100 flowers or bouquets a day before in another section of the mall but now expects his sales to at least double if not treble.
“It’s a great corner of the mall, right in the centre of all action,” said Zarina, sales staff at another kiosk selling consumer merchandise of an Australian beauty brand. “It’s our first entry to the country and it couldn’t have been better.”
The new Festival Square forms the mall’s epicentre that will extend out right to the waterfront for what promises to be a unique town square experience as and when it comes up in the near future. “The expansion programme will deliver an increased functionality in the retail layout and circulation within the mall by positioning the right retailers at the right locations. It will also create more gross leasable area, enhance the mall’s F&B offering and maximise its unique waterfront location,” said Chris O’Donnell, Group Director, Al-Futtaim Group Real Estate.
Dubai Festival City Mall’s expansion programme’s next steps include the redesigning and landscaping of an all-new waterfront promenade and the launch of a new 3,500 square metre food court offering a selection of 24 casual restaurants handling over 2,000 diners at a time. A free supervised play area for children will be an added attraction.
QUICK LOOK
The new shops to start trading on May 14 include: OMEGA, Koraba, Damas, Victoria’s Secret Beauty & Accessories, Jo Malone, Pink, Kiehl’s Reiss, Starbucks, Teavana, Banana Republic, Lacoste, Kazar, DKNY Women, Brooks Brothers, L.K. Bennett, Marella, Molton Brown, L’Occitane, Make Up For Ever, MAC, Troll Beads, Police, Fleur D’amour, Toscow.
