Contractors have been invited to bid by 15 January for the contract to build Gulf Related’s $1bn Maryah Central retail complex in Abu Dhabi.

The companies that have been invited to bid are understood to be:

• Alec (local)
• Al-Futtaim Carillion (local/UK)
• Arabian Construction Company (local/Lebanon)
• Arabtec Construction (local)
• Brookfield Multiplex (Canada)
• Habtoor Leighton Group (local/Australia)
• Six Construct Abu Dhabi (local/Belgium)/Oger Abu Dhabi (Saudi Arabia)
• TAV (Turkey)

The 170,000 square metre retail centre will be built on Maryah Island in Abu Dhabi next to Gulf Related’s 35,000 sq m Maryah Galleria, which opened in late 2013. Maryah Central is planned to open on 1 March 2018.

Work on the main contract is expected to start in early 2015. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on 10 November.

The mall has two US-based department stores already leased. Bloomingdales will open its second store in the UAE, and Macy’s will open its first store outside the US. Al-Tayer Group, which sponsors the two department stores in the UAE, will also operate more than 20 other stores representing about one third of Al-Maryah Central’s total leasable space.

The mall will be one of the biggest in the UAE and the largest in central Abu Dhabi. On top of the mall will be two towers. The first will be a residential tower with serviced apartments, the second will be a hotel with 200-330 rooms.

The project management consultant is US-based Aecom. The cost consultant is the UK’s Faithful + Gould.

The client is GR Sowwah Retail, which is a special purpose vehicle created by Gulf Related, which is a joint venture of Saudi Arabia’s Gulf Capital and US-based Related.