UAE developer Aldar Properties has invited companies to bid by 7 March for the contract to build the estimated AED150m ($41m) Ikea furniture store on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi.

The prospective bidders include the local Alec; the local Al-Futtaim Carillion; the local/Australian Al-Habtoor Leighton Group; the local ETA Ascon; and Bam of the Netherlands.

The 29,642 square-metre retail outlet will be Ikea’s largest store in the Middle East region. It will have a total sales area of 18,100 square metres, a 2,100 square-metre restaurant with 600 seats, and a parking structure with 1,563 parking spaces.

Ikea expects about 1.3m people will visit the new store during its first year of operations.

Ikea already has one outlet in Abu Dhabi at the Marina Mall on Abu Dhabi Island.

The consultant for the new store is the local Brewer Smith Brewer Gulf. The quantity surveyor is UK-based Cyril Sweett.

Aldar is also building a 300,000 square-metre shopping mall on Yas Island. It is being built by Aldar Besix, which is a joint venture of Aldar and Belgium’s Besix (MEED 13:1:08).