Dubai "The Shopping Destination": Malls in Dubai

Deira City Center

Deira City Center in Dubai was the largest mall in Dubai, but now this position of the largest mall has been taken by “The Dubai Mall”. It is one of Majid Al Futtaim's City Centre mall chains and was the first to open and until now, is the most popular. It is a popular shopping, entertainment and leisure complex with 2 levels. It has over 1.2 million sq. ft. of retail selling space, with over 340 shops and 6,000 free car-parking spaces. Similar to all of the City Center chains, Deira City Center houses the popular hypermarket Carrefour. It also houses an 11-screen Cinestar Cinemas, Lexus and Toyota showrooms, 11-storey office tower, Magic Planet (leisure family complex), and the Sofitel City Centre Hotel and Residence (Deira City Center, 2009).
Timings: Sat -Thurs 10am - 10pm and Fri 2pm - 10pm
Location: Near the Dnata Intersection.
Address : P.O. Box 60772, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Tel : 04 295 4545
E mail: dcc@deiracitycentre.com
Popular Retail Outlets : Debenhams, Plugins, Zara, Westwood, Woolworths, JCPenny, Paris Gallery, and Virgin Megastore

Other Services at Deira City Centre

34 ATMs
Baby changing rooms
Baby strollers
Car rental counters
City and beach tours
Deira City Centre- branded souvenirs
Gift vouchers
Currency exchange service
Taxi drop-off and pick-up
Dubai Tourism counter
Information desks
Lost and Found Facility
Luggage Storage Facility
Mobile Bill Payment Machine
Prayer rooms for men and women
Valet parking and car wash
Wheelchairs
Wi-fi service throughout the mall

Mercato Mall
This uniquely themed shopping mall is named after the Italian word for 'market' and is designed in a distinctive renaissance architectural style, capturing Italian, French and Spanish flavors and artistic characteristics. Famous Italian architect, Daniele Morelli, designed the interior of the mall to replicate the concept of several squares, the centre point of any Mediterranean town and the traditional location of the mercato, or market. Its comprehensive shopping and entertainment experience caters to quality-conscious residents and visitors of Dubai. It is located in the popular residential area of Jumeirah and houses a 12-screen Century Cinemas. Mall is spread across 22,947 sq m of retail space and it has over 90 retail stores (Mercato Mall, 2009)

Mercato mall also has a loyalty program called “Privilege Plus” that rewards customers for their spending inside the mall.
Timings: Sat -Thurs 10am - 10pm and Fri 2pm - 10pm
Location: Near the Dubai Zoo on Jumeirah Beach Road
Address: P.O. Box 755, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Tel: 04 344-4161
E mail: mercato@emirates.net.ae
Popular Retail Outlets: Home Centre, Virgin Megastore, Spinneys, Hallmark, Early Learning Center, Claires, Damas Jewellery, and Areej.

Other Services at Mercato Mall

ATM machines
Mobile payment machine
Dubai police fine payment machine
Nursing room for mothers
Wheel chairs
Baby chairs
Lost & found and first aid area
Baby changing station for fathers
Currency exchange
Key cutting & shoe repairs
Customer service counter
Wi-fi access
Public telephones
Mall guide & store map
Taxi drop-off and pick-up

Mall of Emirates
Mall of the Emirates is a shopping mall in the Al Barsha district of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is currently owned by Majid Al Futtaim (MAF Holding). The mall was designed by the American architectural firm, F+A Architects. Prior to the opening of the Dubai Mall, the Mall of the Emirates was the largest shopping mall in the Middle East but the largest one in the Middle East Avenues in Kuwait. It contains approximately 223,000 m2 of shops and the entire mall forms a total of approximately 6.5 million sq ft (Mall of Emirates, 2009).

Other attractions

Ski Dubai
Ski Dubai is an in-door ski resort located in Mall of emirates. It offers an amazing setting to enjoy skiing, snowboarding and tobogganing or just playing in the snow. It is a unique mountain-themed attraction that offers opportunity to enjoy real snow in the desert.

DUCTAC
DUCTAC includes state-of-art-theatre, a studio theatre, an art gallery, dance studios, rehearsal rooms and classrooms. All this is spanned over some 80,000 sq ft area.

Magic Planet
Magic Planet is an indoor amusement park that includes cosmic 10-pin bowling, bumper cars, pool and billiards tables and many more amusement machines.

The Arabian Souk
Arabian Souk has many shops that offer all Middle East souvenirs from woven rugs to Arab fragrances.

Other Services at Mall of Emirates

Information Desks
Store Guides
Emirates Post Boxes
Mall Directories
Mall Branded Merchandise
Postage Stamps
Mobile Payment Machine
Dubai Police And Rta Payment Machine
Photocopying
Fax Service
Baby Strollers
Wheelchairs
Luggage Storage
VIP Drop-Off
Valet Parking
Drop-Off & Pick-Up
Disabilities Parking
Baby Change Rooms
Lost & Found Assistance
Car Wash Service
Wi-Fi Service
Car Rental

Ibn Battuta Mall

Ibn Battuta Mall, the world’s largest themed shopping mall is revolutionizing the retail and entertainment experience in Dubai. Mall is uniquely designed to celebrate the travels of the famous Arabic explorer Ibn Battuta, the exciting mix of over 275 retailers, 50 restaurants and food outlets, 21 cinema screens including the UAE’s only IMAX theatre and a number of events and promotions have helped evolve and develop Ibn Battuta mall (Ibn Battuta Mall, 2009).

This mall is being divided into six courts based on the areas including India, Egypt, Andalusia, China, Tunisia and Persia. Each of the courts is decorated as per these areas to which they belong. The architecture of this mall is really very interesting as visitors walk around the mall; they also get a glance of each of these countries.

Dubai Mall
Over 12 million sq ft, the Dubai Mall has a total internal floor area of 5.9 million square feet and leasable space of 3.77 million square feet. It surpasses the previously largest mall in the Middle East City Stars, which is located in Cairo, Egypt. With a gross area of over 8 million sq feet, City Stars was the largest mall in the Middle East since 2003. The Dubai Mall has 10–15 distinct 'malls-within-a-mall', totaling 9 million sq ft of shopping retail space (comprising of a total of 1200 stores, when fully operational). The Mall has over 14,000 parking spaces across 3 car parks, with valet services and a car locator ticketing system (Dubaifaqs.com, 2009).
The mall has won five awards. It won two awards at the Retail Future Project Awards at MAPIC, Cannes, in 2004, for Best Retail Development Scheme (Large), Best Use of Lighting in a Retail Environment. And the Dubai Mall brochure has won three awards at the Summit Creative Awards 2005, in Portland, Oregon; Gold award for Best Art Direction / Graphic Design, Silver award for Best 4-colour B2B Brochure, and Judges Special Recognition award.

Facts

Total area of Dubai Mall is 12 million sq feet (about 1.1 million sq meters)
Total internal floor area about 5.9 million sq ft
Total gross leasable area (GLA) about 3.8 million sq ft (the same as 50 football fields)
14,000 car parking spaces
120-160 restaurants, cafes, and other food and beverage shops with seating capacity for 3000 people
33,000 animals in the aquarium
30 million - total number visitors expected in the first year of operation (Dubaifaqs.com, 2009).

Special Attractions

Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo
The Mall's Dubai Aquarium and Discovery Centre officially earned the Guinness World Record for the world's "Largest Acrylic Panel" (32.88 m wide × 8.3 m high × 750 mm thick and weighing 245,614 kg). Its 750 mm thick acrylic viewing panel can withstand pressure of 10 million liters of water used in the aquarium, but its transparency gives visitors clear views of over 33,000 marine animals on display. The Mall adopted an International Standard of Ethics and Animal Welfare Policy in its development and operation.

Dubai Ice Rink
A multi-purpose venue, Dubai Ice Rink features a year-round events calendar both on and off the ice including themed skating events, figure skating shows, sporting matches and concerts. For non-ice events, Dubai Ice Rink is designed to convert into a multi-functional hall supported by a world-class multimedia system including a 20m x 10m LED screen. Two-hour public skating sessions are on offer throughout the day every day, in addition to group visit packages and specialized ‘Learn-to-Skate’ programs.

Fashion Avenue
Fashion Avenue, a 440,000 sq ft fashion precinct dedicated to haute couture. The fashion precinct houses more than 70 signature or flagship stores, several of which have made their Middle East debut. These include Versace, Burberry, Roberto Cavalli, Hugo Boss, Loewe, Galliano, Hermes, Givenchy, Cerruti, Missoni, Tom Ford, Escada, Ermenegildo Zegna, Badgley Mischka, Pucci, Ted Baker, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Jean Paul Gautier, Valentino and Salvatore Ferragamo. The avenue also includes a 20-metre long hydraulic catwalk. Fashion Avenue is also an important leisure and entertainment attraction at The Dubai Mall with the potential to host year-round entertainment and fashion events for the region.

Gold Souk
The Dubai Mall houses the world's largest indoor Gold Souk. A precinct with a collection of over 220 gold and jewellery retailers, including a selection of cafes and restaurants, the Gold Souk experience culminates at the treasury dome, a 25m x 13m atrium and a dynamic projection ceiling with ever-changing multimedia shows. Designed by Northpoint architects, the Gold Souk recreates the traditional charm of an Arabian souk reflecting the rich regional heritage of the gold trade. The Gold Souk reveals the journey of the travelling merchants crossing the desert expanse to trade gold and other commodities and the main north entrance begins the story with life-size bronze camel sculptures resting under a starry sky and an Arabian stallion in the south entrance. (UAE Interact. 2009)

KidZania: children's entertainment section, area of about 80,000 sq ft.

SEGA Republic: indoor theme park for children, area of about 85,000 sq ft.

The Grove: outdoor corridor with cafes and shops, and retractable roof to help avoid the summer heat.

The Waterfall: indoor from top floor to bottom floor

Oasis Centre
The Oasis Centre spans a total area of 1.44 million sq. ft. and retail space of 972,000 sq. ft. spread across four levels, with approximately 76 per cent of the stores open at the time of the launch. Oasis Centre houses 77 stores including all of Landmark Group’s core businesses - Centrepoint (Babyshop , Shoemart , Splash , Lifestyle , Beautybay) Home Centre , EMax , Max , Q Home Decor , Shoexpress , Spaces , Gourmet Station and the Group operated international franchise businesses (Dubaifaqs.com, 2009).

Oasis Centre has multiple and diverse anchor stores including Home Centre, Centrepoint, E-max and Fun City. Oasis Centre also provides a diverse shopping experience with a number of globally recognized brands including Carrefour Express, the first Fitness First exclusively for women, Sun & Sand Sports, Nike Lifestyle, Aeropostale and Springfield etc.

Oasis Centre will also introduce the first-of-its-kind in-mall radio system, having signed up with Music Content Management (MCM). The system provides the mall owners, tenants and consumers with a unique in-mall audio service enhancing the customers shopping experience.

Facts

Oasis Centre area 130,000 square meters (1.4 million square ft), GLA 90,000 sq m (1 million sq ft)
Oasis Centre has about 77 shops, including Carrefour Express, Centrepoint, E-Max electronics, Home Centre, Max, Q Home Décor.
Oasis Center services include Fitness First for women only
Development cost about AED 900 million (US$245m)
Owner / developer is Landmark Group
Glass Dome in the roof is reportedly the largest in the Middle East.
Construction of the new center began near the end of 2006 and the mall was ready to open in March 2009
The new Oasis Center mall was first announced in February 2006, with plans for 50,000 sq meters of shops, 20,000 sq m of office space, 4 or 5 levels, 1600 car parks on 3 basement levels, and completion sometime in early 2008. Obviously, figures and dates were revised.
Contact details: tel +971-4-5154000, (Dubaifaqs.com, 2009).

Anchor stores and large shops at Oasis Centre include: