Nakheel's new mall on The Palm Jumeirah in Dubai will have 200 stores, as well as a nine-screen cinema and a roof plaza, a spokeswoman for the developer said yesterday.
The mall will be located at the top of the trunk and include 1 million square feet of retail space.
There will be five floors and three parking levels with 4,000 spaces totalling about 4.5 million sq ft.
"[The roof plaza] is primarily designed for outdoor fine dining and that will give you views of the Palm and back to Dubai's skyline," said Rebecca Rees, a Nakheel spokeswoman.
Construction on the long-awaited mall, first announced several years ago, will begin this year after Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announced on Saturday that he had ordered Nakheel to start work on shops and cafe developments on the Palm worth Dh3.3 billion (US$898,497,043).
A briefing for retailers interested in the new mall yesterday had to be split into two sessions because of demand, Ms Rees said.
"I think that shows the level of interest," she said.
The development, to be called Nakheel Mall, will include two anchor stores, one of about 86,000 sq ft and the other 104,000 sq ft.
There will also be a 46,000 sq ft supermarket and a 21,000 sq ft gym.
The mall will link to a 40-storey hotel, which will have 300 rooms and 100 residential apartments.
"It's designed with convenient access in mind, so there will be a monorail station and it will be for pedestrians as well because there will be links to some of the nearby residences and also to the hotel," Ms Rees said.
But the mall will be designed to be more than a community project, she said.
"It will be convenient for the people who live there but also we see it as a destination development as well [for] people throughout Dubai and the UAE."
In line with Sheikh Mohammed's instructions, the developer is also set to start work soon on the Dh800 million The Pointe project, which overlooks the Jumeirah Beach Hotel and the Atlantis resort.
It will include shops, restaurants and computerised dancing fountains, similar to those at Dubai Mall, and will be linked to the Metro.
"We want Dubai to be on top in all of its projects because excellence remains forever," said Sheikh Mohammed on his website.
Last month Nakheel announced it made Dh2bn in profit last year, as revenue in its retail operations rose by 23 per cent.
Leasing of space in its Ibn Battuta and Dragon Mart malls almost doubled, and revenue from its residential arm increased by 17 per cent, the company said.
"Our financial performance … is also proof that investor confidence is back," Ali Rashid Lootah, Nakheel's chairman, said at the time.
