Al-Farwaniya Property Developments has invited companies and joint ventures to express interest in bidding for the estimated AED1.9bn ($517m) contract to build its Reem Mall development on UAE capital Abu Dhabi’s Reem Island.

The project involves the construction and completion of a large-scale regional retail mall located in the Najmat district of Reem Island.

The mall will have three retail levels with 400 retail units. It will also have 6,250 car parking spaces. Once completed, the mall will have 550,000 square metres of built-up area with 190,000 sq m of gross lettable area.

A contract is expected to be awarded the enabling works in the second quarter of 2015, which will include earthworks, excavation and dewatering. Work on the main construction contract is expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2015.

The UK’s Mace Group is the project manager. The consultants working on the project include Dewan Architects & Engineers as the architect of record, and WME as the structural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing consultant.

Al-Farwaniya is owned by Kuwait’s National Real Estate Company (NREC) and is the owner of several adjacent plots on Reem Island. It had been close to awarding construction contracts in 2010 before financial issues delayed these plans. At that time Reem Mall was in the final stage of design work.

One of the other projects was the AED1.2bn Carina Views residential development. In October 2010, MEED reported that two contractors had been shortlisted for main construction package.