UAE firms benefit as Qatar gears up for Fifa World Cup with construction projects

Eight years before the World Cup comes to the Middle East, UAE-based firms are among those pressing ahead with billions of rials worth of projects as Qatar prepares to host an influx of up to 3.5 million football fans.

The skyline of Doha in Qatar. Lars Baron / Getty Images

Companies based in the UAE are among the big winners after billions of riyals worth of construction projects were awarded in Qatar yesterday as the country gears up its preparations to host the first Fifa World Cup in the Middle East, which is expected to bring in an influx of up to 3.5 million football fans.

Construction of what is set to be one of the largest shopping malls in the Middle East moved one step closer yesterday when a joint venture including the UAE conglomerate Al Futtaim Group awarded a 1.65 billion Qatari rials (Dh1.66bn) contract to two Middle Eastern contractors to complete the main works on the Doha Festival City scheme.

Work on the 6bn rials development, expected to be Qatar’s largest mall, will be undertaken by Alec Qatar and Gulf Contracting Company, the developer Bawabat Al Shamal Real Estate, a joint venture of Al Futtaim Real Estate, Qatar Islamic Bank, Aqar Real Estate Development and Investment and a private Qatari investor, said yesterday.

Alec Qatar, the Doha branch of Alec, an offshoot of Abu Dhabi’s Al Jaber Group and Gulf Contracting, a joint venture between the Qatari engineering group Al Darwish and the FTSE 250-listed British firm Interserve, will begin main works on the scheme in July.

The pair have been working on bulk excavations at the site since April after they were awarded the contracts for foundation work in January.

When it is finished, Doha Festival City Mall will be Qatar’s largest shopping centre, stretching over 250,000 square metres – more than 35 football pitches – in size. It will comprise 550 shops – about the same number as Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates – including a snow park and a Vox Cinema as well as 85 restaurants and cafes.

The mall, which is located on Al Shamal Road, the main north-south artery that joins Hamad International Airport with the north of Qatar, is expected to open in autumn 2016.

It is one of the first mega-projects to get under way after Qatar’s successful bid to host the World Cup in 2022.

Bawabat Al Shamal did not say how many stores it had leased at the mall. However, the chief executive Kareem Shamma said that the company had signed tenancy deals with franchise owners including Azadea, Alshaya, Apparel, Landmark, Rivoli, Dubai Holding Group and Al Futtaim Retail.

“Our main objective is to provide all of Qatar’s residents and visitors with a memorable experience every time they visit us,” he said.

A first phase of the scheme comprising Qatar’s first Ikea store opened in March last year.

News of the contract award came as Qatar Cool, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi-based Tabreed and Qatar’s United Development Company, announced that it was also pressing ahead with the construction of its fourth district cooling plant in the country as it ramps up for a surge in demand.

Tabreed, which supplies chilled water to buildings for use in air-conditioning systems, said that it had awarded Al Jaber Engineering and UAE-based ADC Energy Systems the contract to build the new plant. It declined to give the value of the contract.

The project, which is also expected to be completed in 2016, will provide district cooling to West Bay, Doha’s new central business district.

Jasim Husain Thabet, the Tabreed chief executive, said that the plant was designed to deliver 40,000 tonnes of cooling, cutting down energy consumption by about 50 per cent compared to conventional cooling.

“Qatar is a significant market for Tabreed as we look to continue to strengthen our regional footprint,” Mr Thabet added.

Meanwhile Kahramaa, Qatar’s state-owned electricity and water company, announced that it had awarded 7.7bn rials worth of contracts to companies including Germany’s Siemens, India’s Larsen & Toubro and South Korea’s Taihan Electric to erect electric transmission cables in the country.

Qatar controversially won the chance to host the 2022 tournament in 2010 despite being the smallest country ever to host the event and having some of the hottest summer temperatures in the world.

Since then the government has started to implement major infrastructure programmes aimed at coping with the tourist influx. Yesterday, Qatar said that 30bn rials would be spent on power projects in the coming decade, Bloomberg News reported.

However, some experts are concerned about what kind of legacy will be left for the 2 million-strong country when the month-long tournament has finished.

“The high demand for retail space in Doha has prompted the development of numerous new shopping malls which, provided construction timelines are met, will transform the market to an oversupplied retail sector,” said Duncan Gray, the director and country manager for Qatar at Colliers International in a recent note.

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