IKEA to Open Store in Festival City

For more retail coverage, click GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.

DUBAI-Al-Futtaim Group, the developer of a 1,600-acre city-within-a-city here will anchor its 2 million-sf retail hub with an IKEA, one of several retailing brands it owns in the UAE. While the store is a typical size for IKEA at 273,405 sf, it will be three times larger than IKEA’s existing Dubai location at Deira City Center. The IKEA store will open this fall as an anchor of Festival Center, the retail heart of Festival City, a new master-planned project along the banks of Dubai Creek. The store will include a 300-seat restaurant–double the size of the existing IKEA restaurant at Deira City Center–and a 50-seat exit café.Comprising 15 distinct development zones, Dubai Festival City is the Middle East’s largest, privately-funded, mixed-use, real estate project. It will comprise a mix of entertainment, dining, shopping, “edutainment,” sport and leisure facilities, automotive dealerships, hotels, a marina, residential and office components.The names of all signed tenants for the retail hub have not been released. According to a statement by Al-Futtaim Group, 60% of the retail area has already been committed. The retail center will have parking for 11,000 cars. Al-Futtaim owns the UAE rights to several retail chains, including IKEA, Ace Hardware, Toys R Us and Marks & Spencer. The company also owns the dealership rights for several automotive companies, including Toyota, Lexus, Honda, Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge and Volvo.The first phase of Festival City was the Al Badia Golf Resort, an 18-hole championship golf course designed by world-renowned golf course designer Robert Trent Jones II LLC. The golf course opened to the public this week. The surrounding Mediterranean-style apartments and town homes are already occupied.In addition to Festival Center, foundation work has also begun on the InterContinental Hotel Dubai Festival City, a convention hotel that will be situated on the north-west peninsula of the marina. The Four Seasons Hotel Dubai, which will open at the end of 2006, is the latest addition to Dubai Festival City. It will have 250 rooms and villas, a destination spa, five restaurants and conference and banquet facilities.