The first phase of the Mall of the World in Dubai will focus on hotels and retail, the developer of the project has told Hotelier Middle East.
Announced over the weekend by Dubai Holding, Mall of the World has been described as a 'temperature-controlled, pedestrianised city’, encompassing retail, a theme park, an entertainment district and a wellness zone.
Among all of this will be 80 hotels and 20 serviced apartment building, with a total of 20,000 rooms. As Dubai Holding CEO Ahmad Bin Byat explained to Hotelier Middle East, this will be particularly important in the first phase.
“This is a massive project that will be developed over phases based on market demand. The first phase of the development will be the one located on Sheikh Zayed Road,” he said.
“It will be focused on the hotels as there is a huge demand as well as the retail element, i.e. the street network.
“We are currently appointing consultants specialising in a range of expertise that complement our own and to advise us on this project. This will take around six months and then we will be at a better position to announce start and completion dates.”
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While the company’s own hotel subsidiary – Jumeirah Group – seems best-placed to grab hospitality opportunities, the scale of the project also means Dubai Holding will look to work with a broad range of operators.
“It is still an early stage, however, we are confident that this project will appeal to different hotel operators and we welcome all to contact us.
“Obviously, we are planning to use our own Group capabilities as well. Jumeirah is a leading luxury hotel operator and both TECOM and Dubai Properties have successful experience in managing mid-market hotels. We will disclose more details in due course.”
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