Dubai: Shoppers in the south of Dubai will have a whole lot more choice from Tuesday when City Centre Me’aisem, a new shopping mall in International Media Production Zone (IMPZ), opens.

Covering one million square feet, the community mall is located in the Me’aisem area of IMPZ, at the intersection of Al Khail Road and Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Road.

The mall features 60 outlets, including fashion stores, a 91,903 square feet Carrefour hypermarket, restaurants, fast-food chains, cafés and convenience stores. It also features a Magic Planet covering 6,243 square feet, and a medical clinic. Some of the brands at the mall are new to the Middle East, according to a statement released last month from its operator Majid Al Futtaim (MAF).

Construction of the new mall, which will include a second phase, started March last year.

City Centre Me’aisem fills a gap for retail developments in the south of the city, which is where the population is growing the fastest, according to Craig Plumb, head of research at real estate consultancy JLL.

“The population is growing to the south of the city. Retail projects tend to follow the population growth,” he said.

The mall aims to serve the needs of residents in Victory Heights, Jumeirah Golf Estates, Jumeirah Village Circle, Jumeirah Village Triangle, Arabian Ranches and Motor City, in addition to employees in IMPZ’s commercial zone, MAF said.

“There are a number of other projects aiming to fill the shortage that currently exists [in the south of Dubai],” Plumb said.

Citing examples, he said that these projects include two Nakheel Pavilion retail centres at Nakheel’s Al Furjan community, located between Shaikh Zayed Road and Mohammed Bin Zayed Road. The first Nakheel Pavilion, covering more than 100,000 square feet, is expected to open in mid-2016.

Al Khail Avenue, located at Dubai’s Jumeirah Village, is another mall by the Dubai-based developer that is coming up in the south of the city. With 1.2 million square feet of retail space, it is set to open in 2018.

Plumb expects that the southern part of Dubai will need more retail space in the future as the population continues to grow.