The QR6bn Doha Festival City’s first phase, a 32,000sqm Ikea store, is gearing up for an end-of-the-month opening, Gulf Times has learnt.
Located beside Al Shamal Road and just 20 minutes from Doha International Airport, the opening of the world’s leading home furnishing company from Sweden is eagerly awaited by a good number of Qatar residents, many of whom are regulars at Ikea UAE.
Bawabat Al Shamal Real Estate Company (Basrec), the owners and developers of Doha Festival City, had announced in June 2012 that the first phase is due for completion in Q1 2013 and the remaining components in 2015.
More than 500 shops and over 8,500 car parking spaces with a vehicle management system are among the features that are expected to make Doha Festival City unique.
Ikea alone is slated to have about 1,300 car parks and more than 540 seats for its restaurant. The Ikea story began in 1943 in the small village of Agunnaryd in Sweden, when founder Ingvar Kamprad was just 17.
Since then, the Ikea Group has grown into a major retail enterprise with 123,000 co-workers in 43 countries/territories generating annual sales of more than 21.5bn euros.
Ikea’s motto is to ‘work towards creating a better everyday life at home for the many people by offering well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible can afford them – and still have money left for other things.’
Today Ikea employs over 135,000 people in 43 countries. There are about 12,000 products in the total Ikea product range. Each store carries a selection, depending on store size, and Ikea Qatar will carry 7,500. The core range is the same worldwide.
A salient feature is that Ikea products are generally easy to assemble and require no special tools. More than 2,000 suppliers in over 50 countries manufacture Ikea products.
Basrec is comprised of investors Al Futtaim Real Estate Services, Qatar Islamic Bank, Aqar Real Estate Development And Investment and a private Qatari investor.
The complex is being constructed on a 433,847sqm plot which will include 260,000sqm gross leasable area of retail space, including a large number of new brands to Qatar.
The project will also boast of an entertainment and leisure complex, automotive showrooms, international hotels and convention centre.
Work had commenced in October 2011 on Doha Festival City, which was adjudged in June 2012 as the ‘Best Future Project’ at the Global RLI Awards in London.
A panel of highly-respected business leaders from around the globe judged architectural excellence, innovation in materials, equipment, new techniques, and the new impact that each development will have upon the local community.
The three other finalists on the same category along with Doha Festival City were Marina Mall – Doha, Copenhagen Designer Outlets – Denmark and National Heart Centre – Singapore.
It was also in June 2012, that Basrec signed a QR3.7bn, 10- year syndicated facility to finance the development of the Doha Festival City project.