AED3bn Mirdif City Centre opens on time

Mirdif City Centre opened on time, according to developer MAF.
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Commenting on the project management challenges faced by the project, Emery said the procurement strategy “was based around a high prioritisation of time and quality. Those were the two principle drivers.

"Obviously, cost is always important, but we wanted this to be delivered at pace. We took the step to procure this with one main builder and a single-stage procurement process. Essentially the design went out and the price was received, which enabled us to parallel-track design and construction.”

Emery said this process entailed some risk, as “a relatively small quantity amounted to contractual certainty. Provisional sums were budgeted, and when certain aspects were designed in detail, these were then openly and transparently procured with the builder, and obviously it was hoped the pricing would align with the budgets we had provided for initially.”

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Emery said the environmental aspects were added to the design “relatively late. Essentially we decided to do that about two years ago, just about when we started construction. We made a conscious decision that we did not want to be the last dinosaur, but the first of a new breed. We saw the opportunity, did the assessment and decided to invest the money in adapting the design accordingly."

Commenting on the attention to general infrastructure in the area, such as ensuring proper road access, Emery said: “My experience is that mature, experienced developers know what matters, what the key success criteria are for a mall – and transportation and accessibility are pretty high up. These are mundane and are not the pretty bits, but if you get your transportation wrong, it becomes a major issue.”

Mirdif City Centre is Majid Al Futtaim Properties’ tenth mall in the MENA region and its third in Dubai. “Looking forward, we have plans to build another ten malls across the MENA region over the nest five to ten years. We aim to replicate the success we have had in Dubai in the rest of the region,” said Walichnowski.