Mall of the Emirates will boast an expanded cinema as well as new fashion brands when it completes its ongoing expansion next year.
The mall operator Majid Al Futtaim, which also owns Vox Cinemas, will upgrade the existing 14-screen complex to 24 screens, including Vox Max large-scale screens.
The first phase of the mall expansion was launched earlier this year, closely followed by the second phase. The total cost is expected to be around Dh1 billion.
The 25,000 square metre extension during the second phase, adding another floor on the Carrefour end of the mall, will also include 45 new retail units and more space will be added to some existing stores. Parking for another 1,300 cars will also be included.
The mall has more than 575 retail units. About 25 per cent of existing tenants will have their spaces remodelled.
The current occupancy rate at the mall is in the “high 90s”, said Dimitri Vazelakis, the executive managing director of shopping malls for Majid Al Futtaim Properties.
“We are providing to customers a broader breath of retailers, both at the higher luxury end as well as at the fashion [end],” he said.
He declined to say if rents at the mall would also increase. In the second quarter, rents at primary malls grew 54 per cent to Dh7,700 per square metre, according to the property brokers JLL.
By the beginning of 2016, MAF plans to start on remodelling another section of the mall.
Last year, the group’s profits touched Dh1.97 billion, up from Dh1.67bn in 2012.
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