City Centre Deira: Majid Al Futtaim’s Original Mall, Three Decades On

City Centre Deira opened on 28 November 1995 and was the first mall in Majid Al Futtaim’s portfolio, according to Wikipedia and Gulf News. Gulf News marked its 30th anniversary in 2025. This article sets out what is documented about the mall.

Size and tenants

Published figures for the mall’s size vary. Wikipedia lists about 370 stores and services and a floor area of about 120,000 square metres, while a 2021 Gulf Business piece gives about 115,000 square metres of retail space. We have not found an official, current gross leasable area, so we give a range. Besides shops, the mall includes services such as banks, exchange houses and telecom outlets.

The 2019 refurbishment

In 2019 Majid Al Futtaim announced a Dh377 million revamp of the mall, scheduled for completion in the first half of 2020. The company described it as mainly remerchandising within the existing leasable area. The plan included about 25 new homeware and fashion brands, about 20 new food and beverage concepts and a new food hall with homegrown restaurants and live cooking stations.

Location

The mall is in the Deira district of Dubai, and the Dubai Metro’s City Centre Deira station serves the area.

What we could not confirm

We could not find sourced visitor numbers, sales figures or any measurement of the mall’s share of Dubai’s retail sector, so this article makes no claim about its economic weight. Majid Al Futtaim is the best source for current figures.