Union Properties plans Dubai version of Paris’s Champs-Elysées shopping strip

Champs-Elysées for Dubai: Union Properties reveals at Cityscape that it plans to bring a local version of Paris's renowned shopping promenade to Dubai's Motor City community.

The Parisian-inspired retail expansion is planned for the Motor City development in Dubailand. Sean Cronin / The National

Union Properties plans to build a Champs-Elysées-inspired shopping strip in Dubai as part of a major push into retail development.

It comes as the company returns to large-scale development after being hit hard by the collapse of property prices in 2008.

Now the company best known for its Motor City and Green Community developments is planning to boost the retail offering across both of these.

“The design of the building and roads will give you the same impression as the Champs-Elysées,” said Ahmad Khalaf Al Marri, the general manager of Union Properties in an interview at the Cityscape exhibition.

The Parisian-inspired retail expansion is planned for the Motor City development in Dubailand.

Union Properties last month unveiled plans for six new projects at Motor City worth some Dh1.5 billion over the next three years.

Property developers descended on the three-day Cityscape exhibition in Dubai as confidence returns to the Dubai property market amid a series of new and old project launches.

The Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris is known for its expensive shops and its proximity to monuments including the Arc de Triomphe. As well as being celebrated in song, the verdant street is sometimes called “la plus belle avenue du monde” (the loveliest street in the world).