Dubai Holding and Emaar Properties have announced the launch of Dubai Square, a new retail metropolis in Dubai Creek Harbour.

Integrating indoor and outdoor shopping, Dubai Square has nearly more than twice the gross leasable area of The Dubai Mall, the companies said in a statement.

Equivalent to the size of more than 100 football pitches, Dubai Square is spread across three levels, they added.

With Dubai being the fourth most visited destination in the world, Dubai Square is expected to play a central role in driving retail sales in Dubai, expected to be over $43.8 billion by 2021.

Inspiration for the project comes from leading cities across the world, with the fashion selection at the retail outlets drawn from London’s Oxford Street, Los Angeles’s Beverly Hills, Paris’s Champs-Élysées, Tokyo’s Ginza, Piazza della Republica in Florence and Madrid’s Plaza Mayor.

Dubai Square will be linked directly to the Dubai Creek Tower through an underground extension.

Abdulla Al Habbai, chairman of Dubai Holding, said: “Dubai Square is our new retail and leisure destination, and with this we aim to actually redefine the shopping experience by introducing a variety of innovative concepts. This is our latest endeavour to bring the best to Dubai, as part of Dubai Holding’s promise, ‘for the good of tomorrow’.”

He added: “The retail sector is one of the pillars driving happiness amongst tourists, locals and residents alike, and as such remains a key focus for us. We continue to play an important role in its development for the benefit of Dubai’s future, in line with our Leadership’s vision of a happy and prosperous nation.”

Mohamed Alabbar, chairman, Emaar Properties, said: “Dubai Square disrupts the traditional mall and retail experience... Dubai Square will play a pivotal role in further establishing Dubai as the next champion of global retail.

“With Dubai Square, we are delivering a new destination experience that will bring incredible value to our retail partners.”

Dubai Square will also offer customers a seamless blend of shopping via desktop, mobile or at a retail store, with digital conveniences including custom-designed mobile apps, quick checkout solutions, search and barcode scanning applications, radio-frequency identification technology, mobile payments and click-and-collect services. It will also be home to innovators in the automotive, computing, sustainable technologies, 3D printing, drones, artificial intelligence and other emerging industries.

Dubai Square will be home to the Middle East’s largest of its kind Chinatown, a project announced last week by Emaar ahead of the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to the UAE.

In addition, Dubai Square’s ground floor features an events arena and a broad spectrum of event spaces on streets and alleys while the first floor has a four-lane boulevard lined with luxury retail, dining and leisure outlets.

Unique immersive experiences will elevate the fashion offering at Dubai Square with special VIP dressing rooms, smart fitting rooms with interactive mirrors, curated private fashion collections, personalised AI recommendations, 3D printed clothing and accessories, fashion museums and more.

Across the boulevard will be a grand luxury avenue, with high-profile brands and a piazza, and scores of casual dining restaurants. The second floor is a family-friendly haven featuring an array of activities at Ice Adventure, as well as a Cineplex, a waterpark, sports arena, supermarket and a metro link.

A futuristic entertainment arena with 3-D projection mapping, theatrical sound and lighting, high wire rigging and other cutting-edge attributes will also feature and will host concerts and theatre shows, celebrity performances, acrobatics shows, museum-quality exhibitions.

Dubai Square also features an Art District, which will be driven by Art Emaar, an initiative launched recently to bring new aesthetic experiences to Emaar’s master-planned developments.

Dubai Creek Harbour is located along the historic Dubai Creek in the heart of the city.

With over 7.3 million sq m of residential space, nearly 940,000 sq m of retail precincts, 300,000 sq m of commercial space, over 66,000 sq m of cultural space, 700,000 sq m of parks and open spaces, and 24 hotels with 5,800 rooms, Dubai Creek Harbour will serve as a strong economic catalyst for Dubai.

When completed, Dubai Creek Harbour will be home to over 200,000 people, and be a thriving economy that drives the tourism, retail and hospitality sectors of the city.