Dubai's Damac debuts as mall developer in Cairo

Dubai-based developer Damac Properties said on Tuesday it has completed the first phase of its Cairo shopping mega mall, its first foray into retail development. Operations at Park Avenue are slated to start by the end of the year and will offer 657 retail units and 84 office units over 120,625 sq m of developed land, along with 2,050 parking spaces. "Damac Properties is now a mall developer. We have built thousands of residential, office and retail units all across the MENA region and now with Park Avenue mega shopping mall we are a certified retail developer. This is a huge milestone for us," said Niall McLoughlin, senior vice president of Damac Properties. As a high-end shopping destination, Park Avenue will also accommodate luxury showrooms for cars and boats, with international auto brands already confirmed to occupy spaces, Damac said in a statement. "We already have an impressive list of international brands moving to Park Avenue. There are more than 200 fashion stores, over 50 furniture and home-ware shops, as well as a plethora of small boutiques," added McLoughlin. The project is designed to have five intersecting zones, which cover a development footprint of 48,250 sq m. The design concept follows that each zone is surrounded by lush landscaped gardens and linked by outdoor avenues to create a seamless transition between the indoor and outdoor shopping experience. "We didn't want to build just another shopping mall, we wanted to create a lifestyle destination where people come with their friends and families to enjoy the landscaped grounds, have a coffee in the al fresco cafes and lose themselves in the tranquillity of the gardens," said McLoughlin. He added that retail and office tenants are now beginning their fit outs, with the grand opening of the mall expected to happen soon. "We are very much looking forward to revealing our luxury mega mall to the world. It will be a grand and impressive shopping complex which will become one of Cairo's pre-eminent landmarks," McLoughlin said. Damac filed an arbitration lawsuit in Washington in May 2011 after the Egyptian government seized land the company purchased in 2006 and sentenced chairman Hussain Sajwani to five years of hard labour. An Egyptian court stripped the developer of 30 million sq m of land on the Red Sea coast amid legal challenges to land deals made under president Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in February 2011 after 30 years in power.