Aldar starts work on mall for Al Ruwais
Posted by vmsalama on April 21, 2008
by Vivian Salama
DUBAI // The developer Aldar has begun work on the first major shopping centre to be built in the remote industrial town of Al Ruwais.
The new mall, located 220 kilometres west of Abu Dhabi near the Saudi Arabian border, will serve as a community centre, providing a range of activities for residents who now have to drive long distances for shopping and leisure facilities.
“People in Al Ruwais have to jump in a car, pack the family up, take a picnic and go on a long drive just to shop – it’s a day’s journey,” said Fred Douglas, the leasing director for Aldar. “Why should these people be denied a fully enclosed, air-conditioned shopping mall – the things that people in Abu Dhabi and Dubai have and take for granted every day?”
The 30,000-square-metre centre will feature a still-unnamed hypermarket, a wide range of retail shops and a Warner Brothers cinema. Aldar is currently reclaiming land at the site and is expected to start the leasing phase within weeks.
Aldar officials expect the population of Al Ruwais to grow from 16,000 to 20,000 by the mall’s scheduled completion date of 2010.
By factoring in communities around Al Ruwais, they believe the new shopping centre will serve as many as 40,000 people, many of them expatriates working in the oil industry.
According to Phillip Vaughan, the director of retail development for Aldar, the company is the UAE’s only real estate developer actively pursuing projects in outlying areas of Abu Dhabi.
Aldar has no plans to expand to the other emirates, but it does plan to open shopping centres in other towns.
“There is potential for further facilities and amenities in due course, but if you consider the point of oversupply, Al Ruwais really only needs one strategic retail offer, and that’s what’s being supplied,” Mr Vaughan said.
Aldar already has a number of schemes under construction in Abu Dhabi city, including the five-hectare Central Market and the Dh1.2 billion (US$327 million) Noor Al Ain development, which will complement the existing Al Jimi Mall.
Both are scheduled for completion in 2010.
