DFC to bring many ‘firsts’ to Doha

Doha Festival City (DFC) is being readied to open on February 1, 2017. One of the Gulf’s largest mixed-use developments, the Doha-based Bawabat Al-Shamal Real Estate Company (BASREC) owned project covers over 2.6 million sqft GLA.

On completion, the mall will be one of the biggest in Qatar and the Middle East. It will host a balanced mix of 550 stores offering international, regional and local brands, including more than 100 restaurants, cafés and food court outlets.

DFC is a showpiece leisure destination that will house a state-of-the-art indoor entertainment zone that includes Qatar’s first snow park, three theme parks – Angry Birds, Juniverse and Virtuocity and a VOX 4D cinema screen complex with 18 digital screens. It is also home to Qatar’s first IKEA store, which has been operating since 2013, and will be anchored by the first full-sized Monoprix hypermarket, a flagship Harvey Nichols luxury department store and Qatar’s first Ace hardware big-box outlet.

DFC’s originally scheduled opening was delayed by a few months because of delays in completing the infrastructural requirements of the projects. “These are factors outside our control,” says Kareem Shamma, CEO of BASREC. “But we are confident the project will meet its new deadline, with the progress being monitored on a daily basis.”