For Mall Developer In Dubai, Nature Is A Marketing Tactic

Dubai

One mall developer in Dubai does not mind using nature and a lot of green as a marketing hook. If anything, he is building an entire strategy around that theme.

The Cityland Mall, scheduled for an opening in the fourth quarter this year, is setting aside 200,000 square feet for an internal park and all of the assorted features that come with it, such as a mini water park and an amphitheatre. The “Central Park” alone will be able to accommodate up to 7,000 visitors at any given time. The mall is located on Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Road and with the Global Village within easy access.

“We don’t see the green area as something that we could have used to add to the leasable area,” said Fahimuddin Sharfuddin, CEO and board member at Cityland Group, “Retail these days is not confined to the shopping experiences alone. And we have been quite clear in the way we have used the Central Park feature as part of our marketing.

“Those retailers who are leasing with us understand the reasons why — we need to create a destination that will attract repeat visitors. In today’s retail environment, if we are offering anything over and above the shopping, it will work.”

Then again, nature is not something new for the Group, which operates the Miracle Garden and Butterfly Garden in Dubai. From designing and operating these to taking a similar theme into a mall is a small step. “It’s been proven again and again that nature is something that fascinates all — or most people,” said Sharfuddin. “We have the numbers from the Miracle Garden to prove that. And the features at the Central Park will be free of cost.” (The park area is also being used to place 22 casual dining concepts.)

The Mall as such will have a leasable area of 1.15 million square feet, while the built-up is 1.8 million square feet. The developer expects to attract 12 million visitors in the first full year of operations. The project is expected to cost Dh1.2 billion, “give or take plus or minus 5 per cent”.

Fifty per cent of the space has been taken up, with the anchor stores being Carrefour, VOX cinema and the Danish furniture brand JYSK. “Our lease agreements were structured to accommodate the VAT component right from the beginning,” the CEO added. “There were no surprises there.”

Once the mall opens, the developer plans to shift attention to an adjoining piece of land that it own, which will be for a three-star hotel.

The Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Road is being primed for multiple residential projects, some being new phases of existing developments while others are fresh off the drawing board. For retail concepts, each new home that gets added opens up access to another potential shopper or someone who wants to take in a movie or eat out.

This is where Cityland’s expectations for 12 million visitors in the first year assumes significance. Get in those numbers first up and the mall will have gone some way towards building up scale.

Danish furniture retailer homes in on Dubai

The Danish retailer JYSK has been confirmed as an anchor store for Cityland Mall. But the Scandi home furnishings brand will already have built up exposure ahead of the Mall’s opening later this year.

In early March, it will open its first location in Dubai, on Umm Suqeim Street and close to Mall of the Emirates. This makes UAE the 50th market for the value-for-money brand. The first store was opened in Aarhus, Denmark, in 1979 by Lars Larsen who still owns the brand today. Its current network spans 2,400 stores in Europe and 100 locations in North America, the UK and Asia.