Gulf Construction Online - Fujairah first

Fujairah City Centre

Fujairah first

The Fujairah City Centre by MAF Properties is the first of its kind in the emirate to offer integrated retail, leisure and entertainment facilities to the community – and will also be the first to obtain a Leed Gold rating.

01 April 2012

BARELY a year after the first shovel hit the ground, Fujairah’s first integrated retail, leisure and entertainment shopping mall is all set to welome visitors this month.

Set against a backdrop of low-lying mountains, Fujairah City Centre enjoys a picturesque location on the intersection of the new Fujairah-Dubai Highway and the Masafi Highway at the entrance to the city in the UAE. Located approximately 4 km west of the city’s business district and residential areas, it is surrounded by government institutions, schools and universities, a hospital, police headquarters and the nearby international airport.

Fujairah City Centre will offer 34,000 sq m of space to serve a relatively underserviced retail market segment in the emirate, according its developer, Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Properties. Spread over an area of 111,332 sq m, it is MAF Properties’ sixth shopping mall in the UAE and is being developed in joint partnership with the government-owned Fujairah Investment Establishment.

Fujairah City Centre ... set for opening this month.

The project comprises four developmental phases. The first phase includes retail units, food and beverage outlets and Magic Planet, most of which will be completed in time for the opening of the shopping mall on April 4. Phase Two, which is the cinema complex (VOX Cinemas) i s projected to open in late summer 2012. Phase Three, which consists of a retail park concept (12,000 sq m of GLA) adjacent to the mall is proposed for mid-2013 while Phase Four, a hospitality development to enhance the mall’s integrated and leisure offer, is yet to be confirmed.

Currently on site, all services are now being tested and commissioned and the retail units are under fit-out as the developer aims to have all stores trading on opening day.

The mall is housed in a single-storey building covering an area of 89,000 sq m on the eastern side of the plot, with service access on its eastern façade and the main entrances on the western facade. The car-park is also located on the western side of the plot and provides slots for 1,000 cars, 80 per cent of which have car shades. The parking facilities, which have also been designed to accommodate the physically challenged, also cater to low-energy cars.

The project consists of a lifestyle-oriented, community shopping mall with a leisure and entertainment extension (cinema complex) having a total built-up area of 50,560 sq m. The mall will be anchored with the emirate’s largest Carrefour hypermarket spread over 8,685 sq m. In addition, it will have 105 retail outlets including 25 food and beverage options and a food-court with a seating capacity for more than 600 diners. All retail facilities are on the main/ground floor with only the cinema located on level one.

An 11-screen multiplex is located at the northern end of the mall and accessed via an escalator and lift within the mall circulation space. Complementing the mall’s leisure offer is the Magic Planet family entertainment centre.

“Fujairah City Centre is not only the largest shopping mall in the emirate but will introduce the concept of integrated retail and leisure into the community,” says a spokesman for MAF Properties. “It aims to deliver a dominant community mall, landmark destination and premium retail and leisure attraction for Fujairah and the greater area, and a depth and breadth of international and local brands currently not found in the area. The development will also create a unique leisure offer that will act as a focal point for the wider Fujairah area.”

The project can also accommodate any further development of the remainder of the site, while enabling expansion of the mall, if and when required, he adds.

The developer has also focused on incorporating international best practice in eco-friendly and environmental sustainable design principles into the project. It is a Leed (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-registered project currently on track to obtain a Gold Leed rating under the USGBC Green Building Guidelines, making it the first in the emirate to achieve this, the spokesman claims.

One of the main customer entrances ... acting as a beacon.

Architectural concept

As the south and west facades form the main public frontages for the Fujairah City Centre, the primary design focus has been on the architectural and landscaping treatment of these facades, according to a spokesperson for Hyder Consulting, the lead consultant and architect for the development.

The design of the western facade incorporates a neutral background in three tones of terracotta with the corner anchor units highlighted with the use of large-scale Arabic-patterned panels.

The two main entrances to the mall have been designed to serve as beacons, helping customers to clearly identify entry points. Hence, the mall features laminated timber entrance portals with decorative aluminium screens – which also act as a background for the mall’s signage – and fully-glazed welcome courts that incorporate 8-m-high glazed entrance boxes, shaded by 12-m-high laminated timber canopies. The entrance features also incorporate specialist lighting effects, which will glow with coloured light during the busy evening period.

Vehicular access has been clearly segregated into services and customer usages. Service vehicles will gain access to the service yards from the eastern side via a proposed roundabout, while customers can enter the car-parking areas either directly from the Fujairah-Dubai Highway or via the new access road on the western boundary. Dedicated pedestrian walkways are provided through the shaded car-parking towards the two main customer entrances.

The overall project has been designed to win Leed’s Gold rating. In order to achieve this, the building comprises a highly insulated external envelope, including an external insulated facade system (EIFS) wall cladding system and a double-skin standing seam roof. The mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems have all been designed to incorporate water- and energy-saving devices.

Other features include highly reflective external roof sheeting that avoids the heat island effect, continuous external insulated skin to avoid cold/heat bridging, and low-energy double-glazed units that avoid internal heat build-up and glare.

The perimeter of the site and entrance facade is landscaped and incorporates environment-friendly features such as an irrigation system that utilises treated sewage effluent (TSE) water supply; low water demand planting design incorporating local plant species; light-coloured block paving in car-park and service areas; and low-energy lighting systems. Feature palm trees, soft landscaping and water features are used to create shade around the entrances and restaurant terraces. The landscaping will comprise 12 palm trees, 308 semi-mature trees, 446 sq m of grassed area whilst the remaining open areas of about 5,410 sq m will be stone covered.

The hardest task was to deliver the project on schedule, including the goal to have most of the retailers trading on opening day, says the spokesman.

Flashback ... Fujairah City Centre during construction last year.

“This required the commitment of the main contractor, Khansaheb Civil Engineering, our tenants and their contractors,” he says. “In addition, the cinema complex was introduced five months into the construction period, requiring the mall widths and roof height to be adjusted and the introduction of vertical transportation (lift and escalators) to Floor One. Both challenges were successfully met by all teams and all the stakeholders pulled together to achieve an exceptional result.”

Construction

An estimated Dh400-million ($109 million) contract to launch work on the development was signed in February last year. Foundation work started in April and the site was filled up to 1.5 m in places to create an even floor plate level, says Khansaheb.

The mall sits on a fibre-reinforced concrete raft. Work started by May-end on the superstructure, which comprises simple reinforced concrete columns supporting steel roof truss members. The steelwork trusses and purlins support a lightweight standing seam insulated roof. The plant rooms have in-situ concrete mezzanine floors while the first floor plate will consist of a 500-mm-thick in-situ reinforced concrete to support the cinema complex. The contractor has used conventional formwork system supplied by RMD Kwikform (Khansaheb’s associate company within the Interserve Group) for the construction of the mall.

The compressive strength stipulated for the concrete used in the foundations and floor slabs was 40 N per sq mm while that for concrete columns was 60 N per sq mm.

The roof over the main galleria and food-court features skylights to provide natural sunlight, in addition to numerous rooflights at various locations throughout the main mall. The rooflights include aluminium-framed double glazed units. Vertical elements of the roof that address the level change are glazed curtain-wall elements and also provide natural light to the internal mall.

The retail units have glazed shopfronts while the ceilings comprise Gyproc plasterboard with paint finish. The external elevations of the complex feature extensive use of the EIFS system to provide greater flexibility in creating visually appealing facades with the advantage of good insulation.

On site, critical issues tested the contractor. The foundations of an existing facility had to be removed swiftly while construction of the substation areas had be fast-tracked to obtain power from Federal Electricity and Water Authority (Fewa). Construction of the 33/11 kV substation and cabling commenced in January last year and was completed in 10 months.

Customer car-park at the centre ... slots for 1,000 cars.

In addition, the mall’s tenants – especially the Carrefour anchor store – had to be provided early access for fitting out in order to be ready for opening day.

Other challenges included a limited timeframe for the fabrication and delivery of the steel roof, MEP revisions, close coordination for deliveries of long-lead MEP plant such as cooling towers, fan coil units (FCUs), fans, switchgear, fire pumps and chillers, and co-ordination with fit-out contractors.

However Khansaheb’s expertise in retail mall construction, refurbishment and extension ensured the project ran without any glitches. Materials were carefully tracked, offsite visits organised and fit-out contractors provided easy access and on-site facilities while maintaining a safe working environment.

Overall, a spirit of teamwork amongst the client, consultants and the contractor, and a proactive approach helped complete the project on time and to international, best-practice standards, the spokesman says.

Electromechanical works

The mall boasts state-of-the-art cooling, electrical and fire and safety systems, according to the project’s MEP consultant and engineer WSP.

“Sustainability was always on the agenda and pursuing Leed meant efficient HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) systems were a must,” says a spokesman for WSP.

In line with MAF’s standards for malls, Fujairah City Centre has complete life safety systems, a building management system and security systems, while air quality sensors monitor and control its air quality as per Leed requirement.

Trans Gulf Electro Mechanical was responsible all MEP-related systems for the mall’s shops and for installing 4,500 tons of cooling and distribution of 14 MW of power throughout the mall.

The mall is provided with an efficient fully variable speed water-cooled central cooling plant, incorporating four chillers provided with partial redundancy built in. The chillers are high-efficiency machines operating with variable speed drives to maximise their part load efficiencies and facilitate full utilisation of the energy savings available from condenser relief. The chillers are estimated to have an NPLV of 10.49 by the manufacturer and are ARI 550/590-certified machines.

The cooling system efficiencies, in particular at part load, have been reinforced with the widespread use of VFDs (variable frequency drives) on pumps and fans. VFDs have been utilised for the cooling tower fans, the condenser water pumps, the chilled water primary pumps, and on the mall air handling plant.

Variable air volume air handling units have been provided to cool all main mall areas and utilise a demand-based ventilation strategy using indoor air quality sensors to deliver exactly the required amount of outdoor air. This ensures a healthy internal environment without wasting energy to unnecessarily treat hot ambient air during low-occupancy periods.
In addition, heat recovery wheels and heat pipes have been utilised on various HVAC systems for heat recovery.

Power to the mall is provided from the new 33/11 kV primary substation located adjacent to the site. This serves two secondary substations within the mall ensuring the facility’s transformers are close to the main load centres. All the life safety, critical and essential systems also receive an alternative electrical supply from an emergency power generation system. This is provided through diesel standby generator sets located adjacent to the secondary substations.

One of the world’s most environment-friendly elevators – the state-of-the-art Gen2 elevator system – has been installed by Otis Elevator Company at the Fujairah City Centre. The Gen2 system is said to offer energy savings up to 50 per cent. The leading global specialist in elevators, escalators and moving walkways has also supplied and installed two escalators to facilitate circulation and vertical access within the mall.

An integrated structured cabled IT network is also provided for the distribution of electronic information throughout the mall. The network provides communications to the security control room, which is the primary management location for monitoring and control of all connected systems as well as being a transport infrastructure for all data, voice, security and non-emergency systems within the mall.

The mall is also fully protected with wet and gaseous fire-suppression systems, as well as a fire detection and voice alarm system to aid evacuation. These are all centrally monitored by the mall building fire command centre.

The wet fire suppression system is provided in most areas apart from those containing sensitive electronic equipment, where gaseous fire suppression systems are installed to avoid water damage.

Fujairah City Centre’s fire and life safety strategy has been fully developed in accordance with NFPA 101 life safety code to ensure building safety. An analogue addressable fire detection and alarm system with voice evacuation has been installed in all areas of the mall.

Every tenant is covered by the mall’s fire alarm system via interfaces with the central system, offering full visibility via the monitoring facilities provided within the mall’s fire command centre. In the event of a fire, the fire alarm system will notify the staff and building occupants to ensure safe evacuation of the building. Emergency lighting is also provided throughout for safe egress in the event of a power failure.

An energy-efficient lighting system is provided to all areas. All luminaires have electronic control gear and lamps are either fluorescent, LED or discharge types with a high lumen-to-power ratio. Programmable lighting controls have also been provided throughout the mall with circulation areas programmed to have reduced light levels at different times of the day. Presence detectors have also been installed in staff areas to minimise power consumption when areas are unoccupied.

All main energy-consuming plant and equipment, including chilled water and electrical is metered for consumption. Central monitoring of all the main load centres and tenants ensures an ongoing energy monitoring and control strategy can be implemented by the operator.

“Knowing when and where you are consuming energy and monitoring these trends allows better identification of any energy wastage and allows evaluation of any corrective measures,” says the spokesman for WSP.

The project has also employed a dedicated commissioning authority company to ensure the energy consuming systems can be and are carefully commissioned to perform as designed.

The mall’s varied retail mix will cater to the needs and projected growth of the Fujairah community and apart from the emirate’s largest Carrefour hypermarket, also includes anchor tenants Centrepoint, Emax, Paris Gallery and Max Fashion.

“Fujairah City Centre will provide a boost to the underserviced retail landscape in Fujairah by providing a high quality and unique shopping and entertainment experience for the growing community,” says the MAF Properties spokesman.
MAF Properties, a leading developer of shopping malls together with hotels and mixed-use community projects in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena), has changed the face of shopping, leisure and entertainment in the region. The firm has earned numerous accolades and awards from international organisations that have recognised its leadership and the quality of its properties.

The company currently owns and operates 10 world-class shopping malls with a combined gross leasable area of almost 1 million sq m across the GCC and Egypt. Three of its flagship projects are in Dubai. These include the Deira City Centre, which pioneered the concept of shopping and entertainment in the region and has over 370 stores with an extensive array of mid-market popular brands, leisure and entertainment facilities and over 50 restaurants and cafes; the Mall of the Emirates, a world-class shopping mall housing more than 520 international retail brands and a range of leisure attractions, anchored by the world-renowned Ski Dubai; and Mirdif City Centre, home to 430 stores offering a mix of retail, superior leisure and entertainment concepts that include iFLY Dubai, an indoor skydiving centre, and Vox cinemas.

Apart from the Fujairah City Centre, the company has two other malls under development – one in Cairo, Egypt and the other in Beirut, Lebanon.

Majid Al Futtaim Properties now intends to make its debut in Saudi Arabia, with several malls to be built over the next five years, taking the City Centre brand into the region’s largest economy.

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