Shopping mall spree proves a tough challenge
- Published: 10 November 2008 16:26
- Last Updated: 11 November 2008 17:43
Soaring materials prices and specification changes have been major issues for a £380m shopping mall development in Dubai
ClientMajid Al Futtaim
ContractorALEC (Al Jaber)
Project managerMace
Architect of record Halfords
Structural consultantMott MacDonald
MEP contractorsWSP
Cost consultantEC Harris
Shopping malls may not be particularly complex structures to put up but when accelerated timescales, harsh environmental conditions and frequent materials shortages are everyday concerns for Dubai's contractors, the pressures can mount.
These are among the challenges facing developer Majid al Futtaim in building the £380 million Mirdif City Centre mall in Dubai. The total design and construction period for the 283,000 sq m complex is just 35 months, with a completion deadline of November 2009.
Construction began with the earthworks in August 2007. "This is a concrete frame building on an 8.4 m column grid, which is standard for a retail footprint.
"There are a variety of structural elements from precast, to in situ and post-tensioned members," says Mott project manager John Price.
"It is pretty simple construction and in this respect there are no real challenges. These have been more related to concrete shortages and municipality issues," he says.
Approvals from the Dubai Municipality are needed for a huge number of activities and with a project market estimated by the Middle East Economic Digest to be worth more than £500 billion, it is little wonder that the municipality has a tough time keeping up.
"The contractor currently says there is 100 days' delay, blaming the hold-ups on obtaining cement and municipality permissions," says MAF in a recent project update briefing.
Despite this, the client insists that the mall will meet the 30 November 2009 opening date: "The project is currently behind the original programme.
However, the adjusted programme confirms major tenant milestones can be achieved, as can completion by 30 November."
A huge number of activities run concurrently on the 24-hour site, with more than 6,700 labourers employed on the project. The contractor says that it has rescheduled activities and boosted on-site resources to meet the 2009 deadline.
Concrete quality
One area where the project has struggled is on sourcing cement. Competition is fierce for supplies from the three plants supplying the site, due to the high demand in the market.
Concrete quality is also an issue and to date it has actually been too strong.
"Concrete has at times been too good. We specify one grade – C40 for the floors or C50 for the columns – and after 28 days it has double the strength expected.
That in itself isn't a problem but it tells us that the mix is not consistent," says Mr Price.
Several precautions have to be taken to keep the concrete cool during curing. Ice flakes are added to the mix, wet fabrics are laid over the slabs as they cure and the slabs themselves, which are fibre-reinforced, are cut at regular intervals to control the inevitable cracking. Fibre reinforcement is also used to keep shrinkage cracking to a minimum.
Thermal movement also has to be accommodated as changes in temperature are much greater in the Middle East compared with other parts of the world. Movement joints at the columns are designed to allow for expansion of plus or minus 20 mm.
To further complicate matters, the specifications for the building changes as tenants make demands on the client in terms of the need for rental space.
"The major tenants greatly influence the layout," says Mott MacDonald senior structural engineer Kirsty Hamilton.
This can cause issues for the design and construction team as getting specifications from the tenants can be a challenge.
"One client, for example, wants escalators in the store but didn't tell anyone. Another store needs the ground slab changing to create recesses for freezers and mechanical equipment.
We get changes all the time," says Ms Hamilton.
Meeting tenants' needs
In order to stay on top of the alterations, weekly leasing meetings are held to discuss the tenants' needs. This is not always straightforward. The team had to accommodate the insertion of a three-storey cinema without having any information from the provider.
"We had to redesign the base slab," says Ms Hamilton. "But we were able to learn from the designs we did for Bahrain City Centre and Mall of the Emirates."
Another area of uncertainty is the Airkix area of the mall. Airkix is an indoor skydiving facility and uses an indoor wind tunnel to suspend would-be sky divers in mid air. It will be the first of its kind in the region.
"We have been asking for information about this for 18 months. They have so many projects that we just have to wait until they have time to give us the information that we need," adds Ms Hamilton.
Safety is another concern for all on the site. To date there have been two on-site fatalities, both of which were falls from height.
"The authorities always investigate. They basically arrest anyone nearby in order to determine what happened," says Mr Price.
In the first case, a worker fell down a shaft after a barrier appeared to have been deliberately opened. In the second, a worker fell from a mobile scaffold.
"Some contractors are very, very good on safety and others are learning from them," says Mr Price. "On this site we have instigated safety walks and tried to show the contractor where they went wrong."
The police are still investigating the incidents which occurred earlier this year. In the meantime, construction is at full speed in order to meet the November 2009 deadline.
"For me, the main challenge is the size of the project. We are running a £380 million scheme in a hostile environment. Even in winter it is 35 degrees outside," says Mr Price.
"Usually we would turn around drawings within three weeks. The contractor would like us to approve them in one week. We are now doing it in two weeks."
Such pace is considered the norm in the Gulf as developers push for completion. Design and construction often happen in tandem and therefore revisions are common. In the retail sector this is even more common as tenants sign up when malls are all but built.
The challenge for contractors and consultants is to meet the accelerated deadlines when the goalposts are constantly on the move.
The Middle East is talking shop
The proliferation of malls provides much work for contractors
Construction of shopping malls is big business in the Middle East, and particularly in the six Gulfstates – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
In countries where temperatures regularly hit 50 degrees, staying indoors is recommended. At the same time the region's economies have benefited from high oil prices and economic diversification strategies, per capita incomes for nationals have risen and shopping has become a national pastime.
According to MEED Projects, there are $9.3 billion worth of shopping malls planned or under construction in the Gulf to date, with the majority ($8 billion) of these being in the UAE.
Major players
These low-level concrete framed structures are often not particularly complex to design and build – the challenge for contractors and consultants is that developers want them up and trading as quickly as possible.
The main clients in the mallbuilding sector are Majid al Futtaim, Nakheel Retail and Emaar Properties, with other clients such as Dar Al Arkan and Kinan International Real Estate Development Company being more active in Saudi Arabia.
Consultant Mott MacDonald is employed on the massive £380 million Mirdif City Centre Mall in Dubai, working for Majid Al Futtaim.
It came to the project having worked on the company's £290 million Bahrain City Centre Mall which opened in September and is considering embarking upon a framework with the developer.
"We are in discussions with Majid Al Futtaim. They are planning 40 malls by 2015," explains head of the buildings division Steve Rayner.
By moving into Bahrain to work on the shopping mall, the company found itself with a foothold in a new market. "We followed our client MAF two and a half years ago. Now the project has finished we
have taken over their old office and set up our Bahrain centre from
here," he says.
Other clients have similar ambitions to MAF. Nakheel Retail is planning to build 1.3 million sq m of retail space in five projects in
Dubai. These are four new malls: the Palm Jumeirah, the Palm Deira, an Indian-themed mall known as India Mall and the Great Mall at International City. The fifth is an expansion to the existing Ibn Battuta Mall in the west of Dubai.
Selling points
Although most malls are simple structures, the elements within them can be complex as developers rush to stand out from the crowd.
Water parks, ski slopes, aquariums and cinemas are regular features in the regional retail sector. It is intended that such elements will convince shoppers to visit these facilities rather than another mall nearby.
Of course, the operators of such structures often make specification changes late in the construction process so building them can become challenging, as MAF have discovered on Mirdif.
