Nakheel chairman Ali Rashid Lootah was the first customer of Dragon Mart 2’s new Géant hypermarket when it opened for business today.
The 100,000-sqft superstore is among 500 new shops, restaurants and entertainment outlets at Dragon Mart 2, Nakheel’s, AED1 billion, 1.9 million sqft extension to the original Dragon Mart retail complex.
“Dragon Mart has gone from strength-to-strength since it opened in 2004. Our extension has doubled the size of this hugely popular trade and consumer hub, which already welcomes an average of 65,000 visitors a day, and up to 80,000 at peak times. I am delighted that Géant, a long-standing retail partner for Nakheel, has chosen to be part of Dragon Mart’s amazing, ever-evolving success and growth,” says Lootah.
“Dragon Mart is an ideal location for a Géant hypermarket, with the densely populated International City community and other upcoming developments on its doorstep. Géant is the first retailer in the area to offer such a vast collection of food, electronics, household goods, clothing and other items under one roof. We look forward to a flourishing future here at Dragon Mart,” adds Mark Anthony Lack, chief operating officer, Géant Middle East.
Géant outlets feature at a number of Nakheel retail developments in Dubai, with the largest, at 160,000 sqft, at Ibn Battuta Mall. Others can be found at Nakheel’s retail pavilions at Discovery Gardens and Jumeirah Park, with two more signed for Nakheel’s upcoming retail centres at Badrah and Al Furjan West.
The two-storey, 500-outlet Dragon Mart 2 has a 12-screen Novo Cinema complex; a food court and a separate dining terrace offering a range of indoor and outdoor dining options. Some stores are already operational, with the rest due to open shortly. The complex also has a new multi-storey car park for around 2,000 vehicles and a 240-room hotel, opening soon.
Dragon Mart 2 forms part of Nakheel’s sprawling Dragon City master community, announced earlier this year. Spanning more than 11 million sqft, Dragon City is a giant retail, residential and leisure destination that is big enough to house 145 international football pitches.
Dragon City includes another mall with 1.3 million sqft of leasable space, a car park with 6,200 spaces, a twin-tower residential complex with 1,120 apartments and a second hotel with 250 rooms.