The BD250 million ($663 million) Bahrain City Centre – the first integrated entertainment and leisure complex in Bahrain – is on track for completion by the middle of this year, with construction works running on schedule and various units already being handed over to major clients.

Featuring the country’s largest shopping mall laced by high-rise hotels and a state-of-the-art water park, the development in the Seef District has a number of components, which are currently in various stages of construction.
The main contractor on the project, Cebarco-WCT, has been working at a feverish pitch on the various aspects of the complex under a BD128 million main contract. While the building structure of the main mall and the two hotels are 99 per cent complete, the car-park structure is 80 per cent completed. Overall, the project has reached more than 65 per cent completion and has been raised using an average manpower strength of 2,700 that will peak at around 4,500. More than 10 million man hours were clocked up for the development (September-end) and a total of 14 tower cranes have been helping speed up work on the site – the largest number used on a single project in Bahrain. The project also hosts the first luffing crane to be used in the country, says a spokesman for the UAE-based developer Majid Al Futtaim Investments.
As a multi-component project, a full traffic flow study has been conducted with the full cooperation of the Ministry of Works to ensure the smooth and safe movement of vehicles. Also, the entrances and exits of the huge car-park facility have been designed so that there are no bottlenecks at the main road while reducing congestion within the car park.
The project broke ground in February 2005. Cebarco-WCT is expected to complete the complex, which involves a built-up area of around 450,000 sq m within a construction period of 28 months. It has subcontracted the BD40 million electromechanical contract to India’s Voltas, a Tata Group company.
Within this mega development, Majid Al Futtaim Investments is introducing the highly successful City Centre shopping, entertainment and leisure brand to Bahrain. It will be housed within a three-level mixed-use regional shopping and leisure centre, which offers a gross leasable area of 150,000 sq m and features 330 stores. The centre has a contemporary design with traditional elements and high-quality finishes and will have a string of “firsts” and “biggests” including:
• First integrated entertainment, shopping and leisure resort in Bahrain;
• Biggest shopping centre in Bahrain;
• Biggest indoor/outdoor water park in the Middle East;
• Biggest cinema complex in the region; and
• First Carrefour hypermarket in Bahrain, covering 16,600 sq m.
The entertainment and leisure facilities will spread over almost 25,000 sq m of space, which is around 17 per cent of its gross leasable area. It will include the biggest indoor/outdoor water park in the region spread over an area of 12,000 sq m, a 20-screen Cineco Cinema covering 8,000 sq m, the Magic Planet family entertainment centre for children and young adults, and a 10 pin bowling centre over an area of 5,600 sq m.
The facility will also have two hotels – one four star and the other five star – with 460 rooms in total that will be directly linked to the mall. The five-star hotel will be operated by the Kempinski luxury hotel chain of Germany, while the four-star hotel will be under the City Centre’s own brand but will be managed by Kempinski.
The complex will feature a massive seven-level car parking area with a capacity for 5,500 vehicles leading directly into the mall. The architect of the project is RTKL while Mohamed Salahuddin Consulting Engineering Bureau (MSCEB) has undertaken the architectural detail design on the car-park as well as the four-star hotel building.
The water-park is being built on top of one end of the car-park structure adjacent to the mall and will be accessed directly from the mall at second floor level, its entrance being in close proximity to the main food-court and to Magic Planet.
Some of the world’s renowned brands and biggest entertainment and leisure offers in the country have signed up with the Bahrain City Centre, setting the stage for it to become the island’s premier retail complex and a must-see destination for both residents and tourists. According to MAF Malls, which will operate the mall, 82 per cent of the 150,000 sq m shopping mall – including a total of 200 stores – has been already leased out.
The Bahrain City Centre will comprise 45,000 sq m of major anchor stores for many international and exclusive brands such as Saks 5th Avenue, H&M, Ferragamo, Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Rolex Roberto Cavalli, Kiabi, Max Fashion, Aizone, Debenhams, Centre Point, Home Centre, Paris Gallery, Zara, Mango, Massimo Dutti, Virgin Mega Stores, TGI Fridays, Wafi Gourmet as well as an array of traditional outlets that will be featured in a specially decorated space.
It will also have the largest concentration of food outlets and restaurants under one roof in the region housing around 54 food and beverage units spread over 9,700 sq m which will cater for a variety of culinary tastes. This will include 11 coffee shops, 13 restaurants, 21 food-court units and nine smaller food and beverage outlets.
MAF Shopping Malls is the leading manager and developer of shopping centres in the Middle East and North Africa. The company is part of MAF Properties, one of the major operating subsidiaries of the MAF Group, which already has seven operating centres totalling 500,000 sq m of gross leasable area comprising four centres in the UAE, two in Egypt and one in Oman.
Over the past 11 years, MAF Shopping Malls world-class shopping centres has intiated a number of breakthrough developments such as Ski Dubai – the first indoor ski resort, the Mall of the Emirates – the first shopping resort in the Middle East and the popular City Centre franchise that has been exported across the region to Egypt and Muscat.