A joint venture of Gulf Contracting Company (GCC) and Alec Qatar has been awarded a contract from Bawabat Al Shamal Real Estate Company (Basrec) worth QR1.65-billion ($453 million) for the main works on the Doha Festival City Mall.

The mall is part of Doha Festival City which is being developed by Basrec. It is located on Al Shamal Road and will be Qatar’s largest retail and leisure destination upon completion. With a gross leasable area of some 250,000 sq m, the mall will house 550 outlets, including 85 restaurants and cafes, the country’s first-of-its-kind entertainment zone which will include VOX Cinemas and a snow park, and will provide around 8,000 parking spaces.

The contract award follows a lengthy bidding and evaluation process and is a significant milestone towards the successful completion of the development which is scheduled to open in the third quarter 2016.

“We have already signed tenancy deals with the region’s retail powerhouses, including Azadea, Alshaya, Landmark, Apparel, Rivoli, Dubai Holding Group, and Al Futtaim Retail,” said Basrec CEO Kareem Shamma.

The mall’s substructure works contract for the construction of basement and ground floor levels was also awarded to the joint venture of GCC and Alec Qatar in January of this year and works have been progressing steadily with main works now due to commence next month (July).

Darrell Bergesen, Alec Qatar general manager, and Grahame McCaig, GCC general manager, said: “We are delighted to have put forward a winning proposition for this scheme, which we have followed for a considerable period of time. This award is the culmination of a huge effort by the respective partners’ estimating, commercial, and technical teams.”

Doha Festival City Mall’s current phase of the development broke ground in April  last year with a bulk excavation contract, following the successful completion of the first Ikea store in Qatar.