(MENAFN- Arab Times) United Real Estate Company (URC), the leading real estate development company in the MENA region announced today that two of its retail projects, Abdali Mall and Salalah Gardens Mall, have been awarded by the World Finance Construction Awards. The Abdali Mall project in Jordan won Best Retail Project - Middle East in the Large-Cap category, while Salalah Gardens Mall in Oman won Best Retail Project - Middle East in the Mid-Cap category. With assets over $1.6 billion, URC has been developing projects for the past 40 years and has proven to be a market leader in the MENA region through a track record of assets set at prime locations. The 2013 Construction Awards are a reflection of companies at the forefront of the industry who bring quality and added value to societies at all levels, both social and economic. Through a voting system, two URC's most recent retail projects, Abdali Mall and Salalah Gardens Mall were voted this year into the "Best Retail Project - Middle East" categories by the World Finance readership population.
Criteria
Both projects were then individually judged by the World Finance Award Selection Panel for criteria such as market leadership, business growth potential, local impact, socio-economic significance, sustainability, project quality and architectural innovation. Commenting on this, URC's CEO, Mohammed Ahmed Al Saqqaf said, "It brings us great pleasure that two of our projects have been voted and selected as Best Retail Projects in the Middle East by a reputable and global organization such as World Finance. We as developers have a new role to fill, which is to ensure that our commercial projects contribute to the economic and social development of the city. As for our other projects under development whether on the hospitality or residential front, we are very much aware of our conscious responsibility towards integrating sustainability into our developments."
The head judge of the World Finance Award Selection Panel, Alexander Redcliffe was quoted as saying, "URC's undoubted expertise and focus on exciting mall projects in the Middle-East both in developing stand-alone projects and the expertise they can bring to a mixed-use development in the retail sector in new frontier markets and not simply focusing on tradition geographic templates was a particularly exciting aspect of their final victory."
Development
Abdali Mall is part of the master plan development for the new downtown area of Amman. The mall has a total built up area of 227,000 sqm and spreads over five retail floors with a gross leasable area of 73,000 sqm. The mall will include a large number of retail shops, an entertainment center, eleven cinema screens, a food court, a casual dining plaza, a supermarket, in addition to five basement floors to accommodate parking for 2,400 cars. Once complete in Q1 2015,Abdali Mall will create over 1,000 job opportunities. As for Salalah Gardens Mall, this project was complete in Q2 2013. It embraces traditional Omani architectural design with a large landscaped courtyard and integrates modern interior and finishing.
The mall has a total built-up area of 86,074 sqm and introduces a wide variety of shopping, dining and entertainment options such as the first modern cinema complex in Salalah, and an indoor arcade and play area. The mall will also feature a designated souq area for traditional Omani handicrafts. The World Finance Construction Awards are dedicated to the continual evolution of the construction industry in modern society, in which both Abdali Mall and Salalah Gardens Mall have proven to be an example of such
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