Dubai: Mall of The World - A New Construction Project

Dubai is already a haven for shoppers, boasting some of the largest malls in the GCC. The Emirate further reiterated its ambitions recently when announcing its plans to build the Mall of the World. The Mall of the World in Dubai will not be any ordinary shopping mall as I'll detail further into this article.

Outstanding Size
To give you some idea of size and scale The Dubai Mall is currently regarded as the largest Mall in the World based on overall area and covers 13 Million Square feet. The plans for the whole  Mall of the World development are to be nearly four times the size and will occupy a total area of 48 Million square feet. 

Not Only a Shopping Mall
Of the 48 million sq feet, it is estimated that only 8 million square feet will be solely dedicated to the Shopping Mall. So it would be unfair to describe this development purely as a shopping centre. 

Instead the development should be viewed as a miniature indoor city with the whole project covered by an iconic dome structure which will be temperature controlled.

The Mall of the World development is set to include:

- 8 million sq ft shopping mall

- 20,000 rooms combined - Made up of over 100 hotels as well as serviced apartments

- The World's largest  indoor Theme Park

- 7 Km of streets with retail shops

- Wellness District - 3 million sq ft of healthcare facilities to attract medical tourists

The vision is that families can stay within the Mall of the World and have a spectacular weekend (or longer) without leaving the 48 million sq ft site.

Distinguishing Feature
The most distinguishing feature of the Mall of the World will likely be its iconic central Dome. Dubai has been known to hit soaring temperatures of more than 40 Degrees, often too hot for visitors to shop in an outdoor environment.

 To overcome this the seven-kilometres of streets connecting hotels and shops etc will all be covered by a glass dome which is fully temperature controlled. This will offer a unique experience for Dubai of feeling like walking down your average high street but also having the comfort of the temperature being controlled. Therefore enabling shoppers to casually stroll rather than feeling the need to be constantly in a shop for an air conditioned environment.

Cost of the Mall
The Mall of the World is to cost 25 billion AED (£4 Billion) and is estimated to  take up to 10years to build. That’s a massive 2.5 Billion AED per year for the next 10 years being spent on this development alone.

It’s been estimated that 50% of the funds will be sourced internally; the rest of the funds will be raised from other means including sales of some parts of the project, revenue from  leasing and partnerships. The project has been announced at a time when investor’s appetite for Dubai appears to be returning.

When Will Work Commence?
The start date for this project to begin construction is currently unknown. The site in which the development is planned still has some existing buildings currently on the land. Therefore, there appears to be some planning issues that will need to be tied up as well as inevitable funding issues.

There is always the chance that mega projects such as this one are scaled down due to finance or other issues, but we take positives out of the continued ambition shown by the Dubai based developers. The buzz surrounding Dubai is certainly back and I for one, hope it is here to stay.