Dubai-based developer Nakheel has awarded a AED1.5bn ($400m) construction contract to the local Dhabi Contracting to build its Al-Khail Avenue mall in Dubai.

Construction work is set to start in October with completion expected in 2019.

Earthworks at the site were finished in June.

The 360,000-square-metre retail, dining and entertainment centre is being developed in the Jumeirah Village Triangle area of Dubai, alongside Al-Khail Road.

Al-Khail Avenue will have 350 shops including a supermarket, department stores and a cinema, as well as an entertainment area.

Nakheel also recently launched a tender for the construction of a three-star hotel in its Dragon City development, as well as another hotel at Ibn Battuta mall, both in Dubai. In July, the company said in a press statement that it plans to develop 10 hotels at various locations in Dubai, including Palm Jumeirah, Deira Islands, Ibn Battuta Mall and Dragon City.

In an exclusive interview with MEED in June, Nakheel’s chairman Ali Rashid Lootah revealed his firm would be launching new development projects in the coming months.

”We will be launching more development projects in the second half of this year,” Lootah said. “They will be in well-developed areas for the middle class. We see opportunities and we have land. We will halt the sales of land in all these areas and start development ourselves.”