Dubai mall owners deny bullying tactics

Dubai: The new owners of Dubai's Al Musalla Towers have denied allegations of "intimidation and harassment" and say the vast majority of the shopping mall's tenants are in breach of contract.

Traders operating in the mall complained earlier this week they were operating under tough conditions because the new owners had begun switching off the forecourt lights earlier than usual.

However, Abdul Malek Abdul Rahman, the owner's representative, told Gulf News on Thursday all tenants were informed of the changes by letter and they had all signed an acknowledgement letter.

He said: "The allegations of bullying are entirely untrue. If this is true, why has nobody sent a letter to us complaining about it? The normal procedure is surely to write a letter to us first rather than contact another authority or newspaper."

"With regards to the maintenance issue, the new owners have not made any changes to the maintenance contractor, which has been the same for the last ten years. So the allegation of no maintenance are baseless."

Set of rules

"Every mall abides by a set of rules and regulations and we are no different. We are in the process of restructuring the mall and, considering we are going to be located beside one of the city's major metro stations, we have set our standards very high. But we will only achieve this if we upgrade the current system and all our tenants co-operate with us."

People living in the residential tower of the property have been informed they have until the end of their current tenancy contract before having to vacate and find a new home.

The owners have pre-approval from the authorities to convert the residential tower into luxury hotel apartments and the commercial towers into a four-star hotel.

The final drawings have been submitted to Dubai Municipality and building work will begin next year. The owners have not asked any of the tenants inside the shopping mall to vacate.

Abdul Rahman added: "The ownership of Al Musalla Towers changed in May. Before that there was no management, the situation was a mess."

"The contract has always specified the mall's closing time is 10pm, it's just that nobody has enforced that regulation until now," he said.

"Tenants operating outside of normal trading hours are causing problems for everyone. Security guards had to work longer and we were wasting electricity. We had to take action and traders refusing to comply are in breach of contract.

"With regards to taking photographs, we have to prove to the authorities that tenants are complying with the mall's rules and regulations.

"We have CCTV cameras but we still need photographs to prove any breaches of contract. In any case, we don't take pictures of people, just their shop fronts," Abdul Rahman said.

No magic allowed

The animosity between the new owners and the current tenants of Al Musalla Towers took a bizarre twist earlier this week.

One of the mall's traders took the decision to place a "sacred green box" above the security desk on the ground floor in line with advice from a Feng Shui expertise team.

The box, which was placed in protest at the closure of the mall's Magic Fountain, supposedly "stabilises all the holy and evil energies inside the building".

However, the box was seized and confiscated by mall management because it was "forbidden to pass such thoughts on to the people of the UAE".

Abdul Malek Abdul Rahman, the owner's representative, said: "This box is not something we believe in. It is not part of the mall and it's forbidden for people to push their own personal beliefs on to other people. We cannot encourage people to believe in such things."