Dubai: Nakheel’s isn’t just all about building islands, communities and malls ... where needed it will even do the flyovers. The master-developer will soon issue tenders for two flyovers that would connect directly with its under construction Al Khail Avenue mall and hotel project.
“Ensure ease of access and you are halfway to making a success of any new mall,” said Omar Khoory, Managing Director of Nakheel Malls. “With this particular project, it’s more so because of all the communities that have taken shape in and around it over the last three years and with more to come.”
With Al Khail Avenue, the potential catchment area for its future visitors stretches out quite a bit. In the immediate neighbourhood, there is the Jumeirah Village, and its Circle and Triangle clusters, Jumeirah Park, Al Furjan and the upscale Jumeirah Islands.
Jumeirah Village itself has been one of the top five destinations in Dubai for freehold deals during 2016 and 2017 and transaction numbers so far this year suggest there is unlikely to be any change in that status.
“With all those new homes being delivered and people moving, it’s not difficult to see why Al Khail Avenue will need those flyovers,” said Khoory.
The mall, which will create 1.2 million square feet of leasable area, is targeting a late 2019 or early 2020 opening. On the leasing side, 70 per cent of the space has already been spoken for.
It is also one of a string of new retail destinations from Nakheel, all of them embedded within or near the communities that it is rolling out. This includes the Deira Mall, in line to be the city’s biggest with its 4.5 million square feet of leasable area, at Deira Islands. There is the Ibn Battuta Mall with its 1.3 million square feet of retail and entertainment and which will be topped up with an additional 750,000 square feet. And on The Palm, there is its flagship retail attraction — the Nakheel Mall, which is connected to Nakheel’s 52-storey Palm Tower.
And Nakheel is not just building mega — there is also the Nad Al Sheba mall which is headed for a 2020 completion. That destination will have 400,000 square feet of leased area, and will come in handy when serving the needs of the 1,500 villas Nakheel is building there.
“Plus there are the homes Dubai Municipality has built through the years — but Nad Al Sheba is completely under served on the shopping and entertainment side,” said Khoory. “We will change that.”
At Al Khail Avenue, which has a total development value of Dh2.3 billion, the developer is also integrating a hotel element to the mall. The 252-room property will be operated under the DoubleTree by Hilton banner. (Here too, Nakheel is roping in a “community” element. The hotel’s leisure club will offer preferential rates to residents at Jumeirah Village Triangle, which will have 13,000 residential units across its 242 hectares.)
“The mall and hotel will open simultaneously, and an integrated mall and hotel model is something we have had at Ibn Battuta and Dragon Mart,” the MD said. “Where possible, we will continue that approach.” (With the Deira Mall, this is definitely the case.)
“Within Al Khail Avenue mall, F&B will likely have a 25-30 per cent allocation, which is the current average at most of the new shopping developments in Dubai. It’s a percentage we are quite comfortable with — more so given the number of communities that are within easy reach of it.”
Dubai has seen its fair share of community malls, which essentially serve a well-defined audience within a certain radius of it. Going forward, Dubai’s next-gen mall destinations are being built with communities in mind — the only difference is that they are not limited to one or two. Dubai Hills Mall in MBR (Mohammad Bin Rashid) City will be one, and so are the Cityland Mall (near Global Village) and the Avenues Mall Silicon Oasis from the Lulu Group.
On its part, Al Khail Avenue too ticks that particular box.
