The construction of Doha Festival City, a 6bn QAR retail and entertainment complex, is “on target” with Qatar’s first IKEA store expected to open by the end of the year.

It’s developers issued a statement today saying:

Doha Festival City… has made significant progress and is on target for scheduled completion of the first phase following its ground breaking in October 2011.

Swedish furniture and home goods store IKEA will be the shopping complex’s flagship offering, with some 500 as-yet-unannounced shops and eateries opening in stages through 2014.

Doha Festival City will be located along the Al Shamal Road some 15km north of Doha. Announced in 2010, the project broke ground in October 2011.

The statement issued by owner and developer Bawabat Al-Shamal Real Estate Company said some difficulties had been encountered early on due to “hard rock,” but that progress has been made anyway. The press release cites Project Director Greg Douglas as saying: 

“Three levels of the IKEA store, part of the first phase of development, have already been constructed. At 168m, the IKEA store is longer than two new A380 Airbuses laid end to end and covers a GLA of approximately 32,000m2. The roof is the next stage for completion and will cover over 21,000sqm, the size of two and a half football pitches.”

Despite the company’s upbeat statements, a note on the Doha Festival City Facebook page does say the project is “almost” on schedule, meaning it could very possibly be pushed to an early 2013 launch. For those super-keen for updates, the company also regularly posts photos of the construction. 

We’ve seen a lot of interest and queries about IKEA opening here in Qatar. Are you looking forward to it?

Credit: Photo and rendering courtesy of Doha Festival City

(Note: A technical glitch initially resulted in six incomplete versions of this post being published & tweeted – sorry for that.)