Aldar Properties is close to selecting the main contractors for building Yas Mall, a glitzy shopping centre planned for the heart of Yas Island.
"The final bids for the main construction contract have been received and the announcement of the chosen contractors will be made very soon," the Abu Dhabi developer said in its latest online brochure about its projects.
In anticipation of the main construction of the mall, piling works are in progress, said the company.
Accommodating more than 400 stores, including hypermarkets, restaurants, a food court, a multiplex cinema and a family entertainment centre, Yas Mall adds another dimension to the leisure destination under development in the capital.
Retailers such as Ace, the hardware chain, and the supermarket group Geant have opted to open stores on the site.
But the realities of the global financial slowdown have taken their toll on the plans. The size of the mall has already been downsized from 300,000 square metres to 235,000 sq metres, Aldar said in March. The amount of leasable space now stands at 230,000 sq metres, Aldar said in the brochure.
The reassesment of the project means the mall will not be ready for shoppers until 2013 instead of next year.
Abu Dhabi is on track to have among the largest amount of shopping centre retail space per capita in the world, and to surpass Dubai, where the bulk of the retail developments in the Emirates has been concentrated, according to the property broker Cushman & Wakefield.
Final design changes to Yas Mall were being agreed with the relevant authorities, the Aldar brochure said. The company began reworking the design of Yas Mall last year.
Other projects on the island moved ahead last year. Ferrari World, the world's largest indoor theme park, which is based on the Italian sportscar brand, officially opened in November. Ikea in March opened a store next door to the Yas Mall site.
Work is also progressing on Yas Water Park, another attraction on the island, Aldar said. Foundations were being laid for three of the 40 rides and attractions within the Dh604 million (US$164m) park, the brochure said.
The construction firm Alec has been signed as the main contractor, with design approval for the project received in July.
tarnold@thenational.ae
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Barcelona 3
Messi (27’, 32’, 87’)
Leganes 1
El Zhar (68’)
LIST OF INVITEES
Shergo Kurdi (am)
Rayhan Thomas
Saud Al Sharee (am)
Min Woo Lee
Todd Clements
Matthew Jordan
AbdulRahman Al Mansour (am)
Matteo Manassero
Alfie Plant
Othman Al Mulla
Shaun Norris
Kat Wightman's tips on how to create zones in large spaces
- Area carpets or rugs are the easiest way to segregate spaces while also unifying them.
- Lighting can help define areas. Try pendant lighting over dining tables, and side and floor lamps in living areas.
- Keep the colour palette the same in a room, but combine different tones and textures in different zone. A common accent colour dotted throughout the space brings it together.
- Don’t be afraid to use furniture to break up the space. For example, if you have a sofa placed in the middle of the room, a console unit behind it will give good punctuation.
- Use a considered collection of prints and artworks that work together to form a cohesive journey.
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Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
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