United Arab Emirates-headquartered mall developer Cityland Group is planning to develop hotels near its upcoming 1.2 billion UAE dirhams ($326.8 million) Cityland Mall in Dubai, a top company official has said.

“We have dedicated another piece of land adjacent to the mall where we plan to build three 3 and 4-star properties. We are still working on the conceptual designs,” Fahimuddin Sharfuddin, chief executive officer and board member at Cityland Group, said at a press conference in Dubai on Tuesday.

He said “it’s too early” to commit to a timeline for launching the projects.

“[But] we are definitely going to build three hotels because we firmly believe that whole Dubailand is turning into a tourist hub. The area has destinations like IMG World, Global Village and Dubai Miracle Garden, and with new tourism-related projects planned for this area and no hotels nearby, we believe that setting up hotels makes sense,” said Sharfuddin.

On a separate note, he said more than 50 percent of Cityland Mall’s retail space has been signed up and committed and the company is “looking to close [the remainder of the retail space] during the course of this year before the mall’s official opening.

A company press statement on Tuesday said an additional 30 percent of retail space would be signed by year-end and the balance is expected to be fully committed by end of first quarter of 2019.

The statement said the mall remains on track to open in the fourth quarter of 2018, with 60 percent of the entire project completed as of February 2018.

(Reporting by Anoop Menon; Editing by Shane McGinley)
(anoop.menon@thomsonreuters.com)

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