Yas Mall wins gold award at RECon MENA 2015

Yas Mall has won the International Council of Shopping Centers Gold Award for Best New Development at the RECon MENA 2015 Conference and Awards Gala in Dubai. The award goes to Vindico Retail's client, Aldar Properties.

Vindico's connection to Yas Mall goes back to 2008, when it was first appointed retail delivery consultant. The project went through a redesign during the recession years of 2009 to 2011, and Vindico was re-appointed in December 2012 following a competitive tender. Richard Kim was the initial project lead from 2009 to 2010; Scott Strader led the team to the opening in November 2014, and Nihad Muzamil has led it since.

Four things shaped how the work was done.

A flexible fee and service model. The original retail delivery budget absorbed a twelve-month change in the development programme at no additional cost to the client.

Integrated design and management. Site and studio teams working as one gave Aldar capacity inside the retail delivery programme to handle project challenges while holding to its design expectations of tenants, at a resource-to-shop ratio that let the team give retailers proper attention.

A focus on getting shops open. The team took on obstacles in the way of the grand opening, including coordinating the helicopter airlift of tenant equipment to remote roof locations.

Shopfront activation. With sister company Pop Modular Retail, twelve PocketShops were installed and leased into non-trading units for the opening, putting activity into otherwise dormant frontages.

Yas Mall is approaching its first year of trading and the end of its stabilisation phase — the period from opening to having every unit leased and trading for the first time.

Vindico's role covered integrated retail delivery design and management through an on-site team and studios in London and Dubai. The centre was developed by Aldar and each store fitted out by its retailer.