A new luxury mall has opened in Abu Dhabi. John Ryan visits to find out which retailers and brands have taken space in the scheme.

New mall openings are thin on the ground at the moment and there is a sense in many countries that the new mall pipeline is not only empty, but that it is unlikely to have anything going into it in the near future. That at least is the situation in Europe and North America, where only a trickle of new schemes have seen the light of day this year.

Not so in the Middle East where, to judge by the number of schemes under construction, there continues to be something of a gold rush as far as retail development is concerned. And, despite the fact that Dubai has had its ups and downs with the immediate post-financial crash period in 2008/9 proving particularly problematical, there is room for growth in other parts of the UAE.

This is, in large part, the reason a new mall has just opened in Abu Dhabi. The Galleria is marketed as the emirate’s first luxury mall and a quick journey to the downtown area of this city with a population just shy of 1 million - previously rated the world’s richest by Fortune magazine and CNN - reveals that in spite of its affluence, the retail provision is incomplete. This is not Dubai, and while there are shopping malls, they are not of the quality found in the neighbouring emirate - the number of tourists that Abu Dhabi attracts is small by comparison.

The Galleria is therefore a concerted effort to redress the balance and attract further revenues to this small island city-state. At 355,000 sq ft, this is a big scheme and it could have opened very much earlier than it has. However, when it was originally close to completion, Gulf Related - a joint venture between Gulf Capital and Related Companies - joined forces with Mubadala Real Estate, which had been responsible for the mall’s initial shape and form. The outcome was that the mall was altered almost completely.

The change was to shift the mall from being a ‘single loaded’ scheme (a centre where there is one row of shops, similar to the kind of thing found in airports) to a double-loaded offer (in effect a high street with an upper and lower level). A large atrium was punched through the middle of the scheme and an infinity pool was created to front this. Overall, the effect was to “densify” the mall, as one of the architects puts it, and also to increase the opportunity Ken Himmel, managing partner of Gulf Related, says when he first started considering where to invest in the region, his initial move was to “talk to investors who were already doing business here. It was pretty clear that they were all looking for a unique opportunity in Abu Dhabi”. Himmel points out that the number of visitors heading for Abu Dhabi is just 10% of those who spend time in Dubai, but says the construction of a new $7bn (£4.28bn) airport terminal should begin to turn things around.

A quick stroll around the mall’s lower level shows that the strategy of aiming for the top-end of the retail market has paid off. With brands ranging from Tom Ford and Louis Vuitton to Gucci and Paul Smith, the letting agents have clearly met with a favourable reception from the big labels. Morty Singer, president and chief executive of Marvin Traub Associates, the firm that has been largely responsible for The Galleria’s lettings, says the luxury fashion brands tend to behave “tribally” as far as taking space in a new scheme is concerned.

This means that if one or two of the largest labels can be persuaded to come into a scheme, then the rest should fall into place, but getting the initial break is inevitably an uphill struggle. Singer says potential tenants found Gulf Related’s involvement a huge part of the appeal. “What Gulf Related did in the US [as part of the Related group of companies] translated well here. What Ken [Himmel] manages to do in the schemes he is involved with is create environments that are enjoyable and exciting.”

Singer adds that you need to create “exciting food offerings to make a mall work”. In The Galleria, the majority of the food outlets can be found on the upper level and with names such as Sephora, Fred Perry and Diesel sitting alongside them, it is apparent that while the upper level is still aspirational, it is markedly different from the mix downstairs. “We were actually over-subscribed by about 200,000 sq ft, as far as luxury is concerned, but we didn’t want it to be two levels of luxury,” he says.

The result is a mall of two distinct parts and a proposition that commands the highest rents in the city. But will it work? Two things stand in its favour. This really does live up to its billing as a luxury mall and in a city where extreme affluence is almost the norm, this seems a canny move on the part of the developers.
As a snapshot of what is possible when luxury enters a mall, this is about as good as it gets currently and it is a powerful call to action for the well-heeled.

Abu Dhabi may not be on everybody’s list of shopping destinations at the moment, but as word gets out about this new arrival, the primacy of Dubai as the go-to retail paradise could begin to change. Abu Dhabi may trail its neighbour by a considerable distance, but this does look like a good start as far as playing catch-up is concerned.