UAE firm Majid al-Futtaim (MAF) has announced the development of a major retail project in Abu Dhabi, according to a company statement.

The City Centre Al-Jazira project will be developed as a joint venture between MAF and Abu Dhabi based football club Al-Jazira Sports and Cultural Club.

The AED1.4bn project will be the first City Centre branded mall in Abu Dhabi city.

The mall will be located between the Airport Road and Al-Muroor Road in the centre of Abu Dhabi. Work is to start in October this year with completion expected by 2021.

Earlier this year MAF announced plans to build a new community mall in Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City.

The company said it plans to invest up to AED300m ($81m) in the My City Centre Masdar Mall, which is set for completion in 2018.

The project will have 60 retail outlets across 18, 000 square metres of leasable space.

In 2016 Masdar City’s master developer Masdar said that the company had received the approval from Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council (UPC) for the detailed master plans for phases two and five of Masdar City.

Phase two includes a dedicated research & development cluster served by a residential community including 2,000 apartments, a school, restaurants, and other recreational facilities. While phase five will primarily include villas and townhouses.

About 35 per cent of the planned built-up area for Masdar City will be completed over the next five years. Nearly 30 per cent of that has been committed to developments including private homes, schools, hotels and more office space.