Construction work on the region’s first medical mall in Abu Dhabi is expected to be complete by the end of Q3 this year, with patients scheduled to arrive at the AED500 million ($136 million) facility by the start of 2022, according to the general manager Ahmed Ali.
The 12-storey building on an 82,000-square-foot plot in Khalifa City, which is being built by Al Falah Healthcare, includes three floors of basement parking, four retail floors for 25 food and beverage units and a hypermarket, and five floors, totalling 19,000 square metres each, for healthcare facilities – such as a hospital, health clinics, dental practices, medical laboratories and a gym.
Ali told Arabian Business: “We are completing construction by quarter three this year, so by August we will be 100 percent complete and from there we will give a grace period to the occupants to start their fit-outs. We should be able to receive customers by the beginning of 2022.”
Work initially began on the project in 2016, with the land provided by Abu Dhabi Health Authority.
Ali revealed discussions have taken place with medical professionals as well as F&B providers.
He said: “We have some international healthcare providers interested who have been in touch with us. Some of them have come to the site, they have visited the site and had a tour and they are making their plans to start their business in the UAE, in our facility. We would like to make sure that we have the right mix.”
Ali added that they were also looking to attract start-ups to the facility. “We are adding this facility to the economy. Any new starter will need to make the plans, pick the land, go through the permissions and start construction. I’m saving minimum two-to-three years for any start-up business in the healthcare to start and around 50 percent of capex by using the infrastructure provided,” he said.
“There are many local physicians who would like to start up their own clinics, so we also provide a smaller scale of clinics, from 200 square metres to 500 square metres for those start-ups who want to start their own private practice.”
According to a report by Kearney, the GCC’s e-commerce sector is expected to more than double to $50 billion in the next five years, up from $24 billion last year.
The surge in online shopping has forced shopping mall owners to look again at their provision. A report by the Wall Street Journal back in 2017 claimed: “The mall of the future will have no stores”, while a similar report from the New York Times quoted a developer as saying: “Dining and entertainment is the new anchor – not Sears, not Macy’s.”
Ali said the new medical mall will act as a community hub for the area, in the north-east of Musaffah.
“We are in a location where we can receive patients from all other emirates coming to Abu Dhabi. They have to pass by our area, so coming from Al Ain, coming from Dubai or the Northern Emirates, you have to come through Khalifa City. The location has been chosen carefully where the new capital is coming across the road from our facility. This is the new capital for Vision 2030 Abu Dhabi,” he said.
“Khalifa City has an undersupply of healthcare. We have good names who will come, so any residents in Khalifa City, the Al Raha area, Baniyas and Shakhbout City, in addition to Abu Dhabi Island and all the surrounding area, we are about five minutes’ drive.”
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