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Doha Festival City makes its way to MAPIC 2011

Doha Festival City, one of the largest and most advanced mixed use entertainment, retail and hospitality projects in Qatar, is showcasing its retail opportunities for the first time during MAPIC 2011.

Held from 16th to 18th November in Cannes, France, MAPIC is considered to be an important international retailing event that brings together retailers, exhibitors, and investors from across the world.

The Head of Group Corporate Development at Al-Futtaim Group, Marwan Shehadeh, said that Qatar is witnessing growth in all aspects of their economy, and is on its way to a healthy growth in tourism. The malls in Doha are currently undersupplied for the population, and there is increased need for super regional centres that target locals and tourists alike. Therefore, MAPIC seemed to be the right opportunity to showcase Festival City brand, the mega retail shopping project.

IKEA, being a major anchor to Doha Festival City, will open towards end of 2012. The first phase will be unveiled with the mall, entertainment and hospitality elements due to open by fourth quarter of 2014.

The scale model of the project has been unveiled for the first time on the stand indicating major zones of the retail shopping area. The interior design of the project draws inspiration from nature and elements of water, wind, wood and earth. Among the four distinct interior zones in the retail loops are the water concourse, rainforest boardwalk, garden promenade, and fashion galleria, which can be viewed for the first time on animation flythrough movie, offering retailers a view of the project.

The QR6bn Doha Festival City project, which spans across 433,847sqm of land with 260,000 sqm of gross leasable area, is owned and developed by Bawabat Al-Shamal Real Estate Company, a joint-venture between Al-Futtaim Group, Qatar Islamic Bank and other Qatari investors.

Posted on 23/11/2011