Construction work on the much-delayed Yas Mall project in Abu Dhabi is imminent, according to developers Aldar Properties.

An artist's impression of Yas Mall, Abu Dhabi

The builder said in its May Progress Update posted on its website that it is set to award the construction contract in June.

“Since January, construction contract bids have been received, with a contract award scheduled for mid-June 2011,” the developer said.

But the size of Abu Dhabi’s new shopping mall has been further reduced, according to the report.

The gross leasable retail space in Yas Mall is given as 230,000 sq m in the May Progress Update posted on the website of the Abu Dhabi builder.

The original plan for the shopping centre included retail space of 300,000 sq m. That was cut to 250,000 sq m last year and then in March, it was reduced again to 235,000 sq m.

The latest size reduction will see less than 500 shops occupying the shopping mall, compared to the 700-plus announced in the original plan.

The report said the mall would house “over 400 stores, including hypermarket, restaurants, food court, multiplex cinema and family entertainment centre”.

The shopping mall project, which was launched in late 2008, originally was slated for completion this year but the impact of the global slowdown has resulted in a number of delays.

The project is now set to open in late 2012 or early 2013.

The revision of Aldar’s plans comes as Abu Dhabi’s retail space is set to boom.

A report by Cushman & Wakefield earlier this year said the UAE capital is expected to double its retail offering to almost 1.8 million sq m by 2015.

Aldar announced last year that it had signed a long term year lease agreement with Retail Arabia to develop the first Géant hypermarket in Abu Dhabi as part of Yas Mall.

It said Géant Hypermarket will be spread over an area of more than 16,000 sq m, and will stock and sell over 65,000 products.

Aldar, the city’s largest real-estate developer by market value, received a $5.2bn bailout from the government in the first quarter, but managed to return to profit after the sale of assets including the Ferrari World theme park.

The builder of the Yas Marina Formula One circuit posted a first-quarter net profit of AED189.1m ($51.50m) compared with a loss of AED314.2 min the same period last year.

Thriller Live, a West End show built around the songs of the late King of Pop Michael Jackson, is set to take the stage in Abu Dhabi.

With more than 30 song-and-dance numbers featuring Jackson’s classics, the two-hour tribute show will run in the capital from June 9 to 10 at Yas Island.

Thriller Live, which deviates from most stage shows in that it has no plot or dialogue, is in its third year in London’s West End.  The show features six singers who deliver everything from ‘Bad’ to Jackson Five anthems. International reviewers have called the show “quite literally thrilling” (The Stage), “a total blast” (What’s On Stage) and “a great tonic in these gloomy days” (The Evening Standard).

“This show has captured audiences around the world,” said a spokesperson for Flash Entertainment, the organiser of the event. “It is the first time this musical has been to Abu Dhabi.”

Former child star Jackson sold an unparalleled 750m records during his career, with the Thriller album retaining the title of world’s best-selling recording.

The largest IKEA store in the Middle East and North African region is set to open later this week, Aldar Properties said on Sunday.

The Abu Dhabi developer responsible for building the store on Yas Island said the completed project was handed over to the Al Futtaim Group company in January ready for final fit out ahead of a grand opening later this week.

The project was delivered ahead of schedule by a team of 3,100 workers with the precast steel building completed in 10 months, Aldar said in a statement.

The 33,000 sq m store with a total sales area of 19,150 sq m will be the largest IKEA store in the MENA region and expects to serve nearly 1.3 million visitors in the first year of operations.

IKEA’s flagship store is the first piece of Yas Island’s wide ranging retail offer which will culminate with the delivery of Yas Mall, Aldar added.

Sami Asad, CEO, Aldar, said: “We were delighted to handover this flagship store to Al Futtaim and IKEA ahead of schedule. Their commitment to Yas Island was a fantastic endorsement of what we are looking to achieve here, and a clear demonstration of the interest major global brands have in the emirate.”

Ferrari is mulling further branded theme parks around the world in partnership with Abu Dhabi-based Aldar Properties, an executive from the Italian carmaker said.

Ferrari World Abu Dhabi is poised to open to the public on November 4. (ITP Images)

Michele Pignatti, head of new business at Ferrari, confirmed that the Yas Island attraction will not be the only branded theme park by the Italian carmaker.

“[We will] be opening other ones in the world but we are not going to say where yet,” he told Arabian Business. “We have opened this one and let’s see the reaction.”

The company “might be evaluating other countries for Ferrari World,” he said.

Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, part of the emirate’s $40bn Yas Island development, is poised to open to the public on November 4. The record-breaking 86,000 square metre attraction is the world’s largest indoor theme park and home to the world’s fastest rollercoaster, the 150mph Formula Rossa.

Ferrari partnered with state-backed Aldar Properties on the theme park and said the real estate firm remained its partner of choice for future Ferrari World projects.

“If we are looking in other countries we will definitely look with them,” Pignatti said.

He declined to confirm whether the licensing agreement with Aldar was for single or multiple units.

The public opening of the theme park was delayed following the death of His Highness Sheikh Saqr Al Qasimi, the ruler of Ras Al Khaimah.

A soft opening for the media took place on October 27, however most of the theme park’s rides were not operating or were closed due to technical difficulties.

“I think if the public would have been there we would have been more under pressure and things would have been working,” Pignatti said. “The builders have moved out and we have moved in but we have not had the training time the theme parks have normally.

“We will get there, we are Ferrari,” he added.

The new Ferrari World theme park could boost real estate prices on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island by as much as 25 percent, real estate agents and analysts told Arabian Business.

“Ferrari World is certainly going to impact Abu Dhabi’s property market in that the areas surrounding Yas Island such as Al Raha Beach and others will attract more visitors enabling these new communities to receive greater attention,” Loshini Lawrence, operations manager at the Better Homes real estate agency in Abu Dhabi told Arabian Business.

“Property in these popular locations will no doubt appreciate in time, especially once the communities are fully-developed,” he said.

Lawrence believes that, depending on the location, the impact on prices for properties close to the world’s first Ferrari-branded theme park could be “at least 20 to 25 percent higher than similar properties that do not offer the same.”

However, Jesse Downs, director of research and advisory at Landmark Advisory, was slightly more conservative about the short-term impact the park would have but believed the unique attraction would have a positive influence in the medium to long term.

“Based on our analysis, the opening of Ferrari World is not expected to have a short term impact on sale prices and sales volumes or rents and rental volumes. Assuming development plans proceed as expected, we could foresee a premium emerging in the medium to long term.”

The Ferrari-branded 200,000 square metre attraction, which was unveiled to the world’s media on Wednesday at Yas Island, will be the world’s largest indoor theme park and will contain around twenty rides, including the world’s fastest rollercoaster, the region’s first dueling roller coaster and a 4-D experience called ‘Speed of Magic’.

The Ferrari World theme park on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island is on schedule to open in the third quarter of this year, a senior official from giant developer Aldar has revealed.

PARK PLAN: Aldar officials are aiming for a Q2 or Q3 opening, at the latest for the theme park.

“I don’t have a firm date yet, because there is still a lot of testing to be done, for the rollercoaster for example,” Aldar marketing director Ousama Ghannoum told Arabian Business during the Cityscape Abu Dhabi event.

“But it should open at the beginning of the second half, maybe in the third quarter.”

Ferrari World is set to be the world’s largest indoor theme park at launch, covering a 200,000 square metre area.

Aldar says the park will feature around twenty major attractions, including what is being marketed as the world’s fastest rollercoaster.

The GT rollercoaster sends two competing replica F430 Spider ‘cars’ along twisting parallel tracks in a ‘race’ to the finish line.

Ghannoum confirmed that Aldar would be delivering “most” of the villas at the developer’s Al Gurm Resort in July or August this year.

“Work is also continuing at full speed at the Al Falah project for nationals, where the government is the client,” the executive said.

“The first village in Al Falah, which constitutes a thousand villas, will be delivered in the second half of next year.”

Deutsche Bank lowered its price target on Aldar Properties’ stock to AED5 dirhams from AED7.10, citing increased uncertainties on Yas Island receivables and the nature of future government support for the developer.

Separately, Citigroup raised its risk code on Aldar, Abu Dhabi’s biggest property developer by market value, to “buy/high risk” from “buy/medium risk,” on the back of Moody’s recent downgrade of Aldar’s rating to Ba1 from Baa2 with a negative outlook.

Last week, Moody’s lowered ratings for seven leading Abu Dhabi government-linked companies, including Aldar, given that no explicit formal agreement existed obligating the government to support them under all circumstances.

However, Deutsche Bank said it believed the Abu Dhabi government would continue to support Aldar in the future.

“Not doing so could close Aldar’s doors to the capital markets and jeopardize the fulfilment of Abu Dhabi’s 2030 plan,” the brokerage said in a note dated March 8.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank also said while the company has not confirmed whether 100 percent of Yas receivables would be settled in cash, they believed chances for this to happen were high, given that the Abu Dhabi government was cash rich.

The company said in February that it sold certain infrastructure and other property assets at its Yas Island project to the Abu Dhabi government. (Reuters)