Al Futtaim Group Real Estate announces $1bn loan facility for Doha Festival City
Developer says process underway to secure funding for Riyadh project and for expansion of Dubai Festival City
Al Futtaim Group Real Estate, the Dubai based property developer, has announced that it has secured a $1 billion loan facility for the Doha Festival City project.
The developer added that the process was underway to secure funding for both its Riyadh Diryah Festival City project and its planned expansion of Dubai Festival City.
“Our preference has consistently been on tapping debt financing from local banks, local partners also bring in their own equity to the individual projects,” said Marwan Shehadeh, group director for Corporate Development in a statement.
Earlier this year, Bawabat Al Shamal Real Estate Company, the owner of Doha Festival City, announced that the $453 million main works contract for its construction had been awarded to a joint venture between Gulf Contracting Company and ALEC Qatar.
During a site visit to the project site in March, Kareem Shamma, the CEO of BASREC, told Big Project ME that Doha Festival City would be a ‘category killer’ in the Qatari retail market.
“It’s going to dwarf all the other malls. That’s the first thing, its size. Secondly, I always call this the first international mall in Doha because of the experience and partnership that comes from the UAE, in the form of Al Futtaim and other international consultants,” he explained.
Doha Festival City Mall’s current phase of the development broke ground on April 23rd, 2013 with a bulk excavation contract, following the successful completion of the first IKEA store in Qatar, that opened its doors to the public in March last year.
