São Paulo – The Al-Futtaim Group opened last Wednesday (18) its second mall in Dubai, UAE under the Festival brand. Named Festival Plaza, the mall is set in Jebel Ali with 120 points of sale. The target is to see 10,000 shoppers a day, local news outlets reported.
Visitors are expected to pick up as residential community wasl Gate homes become available nearby. The mall’s anchor store will be Ikea’s biggest shop yet in the UAE, at 35,500 sqm. Ikea carriers affordable home furnishings, mostly for customers to assemble on their own.
Festival Plaza is the second mall to open in Dubai in just over two weeks, Gulf News reported. Nakheel Mall, in Palm Jumeirah, went in business in late November, and new ones are in the plans, like Emaar’s Dubai Hills, Al KHail Avenue, and Nakheel’s o Deira Islands Night Souk.
Al-Futtaim also operates Dubai Festival City, plus Cairo Festival City, in Egypt. After delivering Festival Plaza, the conglomerate said it has plans to add more shopping destinations in the region and even the Far East. A new project in another country is expected in six months’ time, Al-Futtaim Group Shopping and Leisure director Timothy Earnest.
Earnest said the company is open to acquiring an existing mall and then expand around it. “We are actively evaluating different options – but it will depend on the market, that’s for certain,” he told the press.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum