Arabian Post Staff -Dubai
The 5,250-square-metre development brings restaurants and cafés together with lifestyle offerings and flexible workspaces at the mall in 6th of October City. The company said the concept is intended to extend the role of the shopping centre beyond conventional retail by combining dining, work and social spaces in one setting.
ELMNT33° features a mix of local and international food and beverage operators, including Aubaine, Joe & The Juice, Al Beiruti, Nuwa, Koffee Kulture, Ozel, Tabali, MOKO, CAF, Nude, Don Eatery and Bascota. The development also includes co-working areas and space for lifestyle activities, targeting families, professionals and younger consumers.
Khalifa Bin Braik, chief executive of Majid Al Futtaim Asset Management, said changing consumer habits were prompting the company to take a different approach to dining and lifestyle destinations across its portfolio. He said ELMNT33° combined local and international dining concepts with lifestyle uses and flexible workplaces, reflecting changes in how customers use retail destinations.
The project represents an additional investment at Mall of Egypt, which opened in 2017 and has become one of the group’s principal assets in the country. Rasha Azab, managing director for shopping malls in Egypt and Lebanon at Majid Al Futtaim, said the development added another dimension to the mall’s existing mix and reflected the company’s confidence in the market.
Mall of Egypt spans 165,000 square metres of gross leasable area and currently houses 356 stores, according to Majid Al Futtaim. Its leisure attractions include Ski Egypt, VOX Cinemas and Magic Planet. ELMNT33° adds a dedicated cluster built around food, social activity and work rather than expanding the mall through a conventional retail-only format.
The opening forms part of a wider investment programme by Majid Al Futtaim in Egypt. The group said in June that it had invested about $2.8 billion in the country over 27 years and helped generate more than 226,000 direct and indirect job opportunities. Its Egyptian portfolio includes Mall of Egypt, City Centre Almaza, City Centre Alexandria and City Centre Maadi, alongside retail and entertainment operations.
Majid Al Futtaim is also developing JUNCTION Business Park next to Mall of Egypt. The mixed-use project is pursuing LEED Gold certification and is designed to link business facilities with the surrounding retail, dining and entertainment infrastructure. Construction enabling works worth EGP500 million were announced earlier this year.
The group has separately moved into large-scale residential and mixed-use development in New Cairo through a partnership with MIDAR for Investment and Urban Development. An agreement signed in June covers a project at Mada City with an initial development value of $3.1 billion, marking Majid Al Futtaim’s first residential development in Egypt.
That project is planned across about 553 feddans, equivalent to roughly 2.32 million square metres. The first phase is expected to cover 200 feddans during the first four years of implementation, followed by a second phase of about 300 feddans. Plans include roughly 6,000 homes, a business and services district, commercial and entertainment facilities and hotel units.
A further area of about 60 feddans has been earmarked for the potential development of an integrated shopping and entertainment destination, subject to the pace of construction and occupancy levels. Majid Al Futtaim has said that addition could lift the overall development value of the New Cairo project above $4 billion.
The company described ELMNT33° as part of a strategy to create destinations integrating retail with entertainment, culture and community uses. Its stated focus is on responding to customer expectations as shopping centres compete increasingly on experiences and time spent at a destination, not solely on purchases.
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