Festival City steals a march on rivals

The upcoming luxury extension at Dubai's Festival City will feature a food hall as an addition to its FMCG portfolio, the director of retail leasing for Al-Futtaim Group Real Estate Philip Evans has revealed.

Tipped to reach up to 40,000ft², the high-end grocery offer will not compete with the everyday shopping available at the centre's hyper anchor.

"HyperPanda are doing a very good job for us and their sales have improved dramatically in recent times. We're very happy with the service they provide our customers," he commented.

The announcement of the names of the operators involved will be made later this year.

"We are talking to two world-class operators, who will be new to this region, one from Australia and the other from Austria. It is carrying out the Dubai Festival City philosophy, which is to bring new and exciting retailers to the market," Evans said.

The Group also intends to build Dubai's first retail park, to consist of a single-storey construction in a circle with a car park in the middle, "which means customers can drive in and park outside the unit they want to shop in, go in and buy their goods, load their cars and go home."

Next month the Group will break ground on the first phase of the Big Box-led project, set to open by September next year.

"We recognise that there is a gap in the market for a big cluster of home furnishing retailers and we have already signed deals," he admitted.

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