Mirdif City Center mall eyes 20m visitors a year

American Eagle Outfitters has opened its first store outside of the US in Mirdif City Center [Getty Images].

Majid Al Futtaim Properties is aiming to attract 20 million visitors a year to its newly opened Mirdif City Center, the CEO of the developer told Arabian Business on Tuesday.

“We would expect to get 20 million people a year through Mirdif City Center,” Peter Walichnowski, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim Properties, said at the opening of the new AED3bn ($816.8m) mall in Dubai.

The latest addition to Dubai’s shopping landscape has 196,000 sq m of gross leaseable area, more than Mall of the Emirates, another of Majid Al Futtaim Properties’ retail developments.

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Around 85 percent of the stores, which include brands such as Debenhams, Fitness First, Pottery Barn, American Eagle, Miss Selfridge, Freedom Furniture, Decathlon and Office Depot, opened on Tuesday and it is expected that 95 percent of the retail outlets will be open within four to six weeks.

Walichnowski said 100 percent of the retail space had deliberately not been sold to keep space aside for future retailers entering the market.

“It is not 100% leased. We have held back units for retailers who are not yet in the region. One of the problems we have in Dubai is once you lease out the store it is very hard to get it back as the tenant has the right to stay as long as they keep paying the rent, even if their lease expires.

“So we have kept back about 20 to 30 shops out of the 430 to give us the flexibility of having space when new retailers come into the market,” he said.

The mall is located off the Emirates Road and the target market and Walichnowski said the target market was the 450,000 residents living in the immediate area.

“It’s targeted towards the residential population. We are not going upmarket in terms of having high a degree of luxury goods. It is very middle market in terms of retail offer and is also got a lifestyle component that is attractive for residents,” he added.

The star attraction will be the iFLY Dubai indoor skydiving centre, which is due to open in a few days. Other facilities include a 15,000 sq m Carrefour hypermarket, a Cinestar cinema, Soccer Circus, Aquaplay water-based entertainment facility and Yalla! Bowling centre.

The mall generated 16,000 jobs during its development and construction and is due to create 5,500 permanent jobs when it is fully operational.

Walichnowski also added that Majid Al Futtaim Properties are planning to open ten more malls in the Middle East and North Africa region, focusing on the GCC countries, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.