The first half of this year will see the opening of seven new Fun City family entertainment centres across the Middle East, it was announced yesterday. Landmark Leisure, the entertainment division of the Landmark Group, will open the new centres as part of its growing chain under the Fun City brand.
The new locations are in addition to the new centres in the Safeer Mall, Sohar, Oman, the Safeer Mall Adman and Safeer Mall Ras Al Khaimah. Those three locations alone added 52,578 sq.ft of retail space to the Landmark Group and each featured a Fun City.
The seven fresh locations are to be opened in partnership with some of the leading real estate groups in the region, including Safeer, Al Hamra and Aswaq Management. Four of the new centres will be in the UAE, at the Century Mall in Mamzar and the Safeer Mall in Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, and in the City Mall Madinat Zayed City, also in Abu Dhabi.
The other sites will be in Bahrain and Kuwait where the Fun City locations will be at Riffa and Muharraq and at the Salam Mall. Qatar will see the launch of a new brand at Ezdan Mall in Doha.
Fun Ville is the new brand which will come on to the market in the first quarter of this year. These locations will be specially designed to fit within an area of 4,000 to 15,000sq.ft and will have a particular sensitivity towards the local communities. They will contain activities, games and attractions which interact with the community with a preference for younger children. The safety and hygiene standards within them will be typical of the high quality used throughout the Fun City locations.
Fun Ville locations will have a Fun’n’Learn play area designed for young children from birth to six years, entertaining them with arts and crafts, singing, dancing, colouring and pretend play. Each will also be equipped with a Play Zone to release their energies in a safe and fun environment. Modern softplay areas will also be made available. There will also be video games, redemption and novelties as well as kiddie rides.
The first Fun Ville, in the UAE, will open to visitors in November at the new Al Hamra Mall extension in Ras Al Khaimah.
Silvio Liedtke, CEO at Landmark Leisure, said: “These are exciting times for us at Landmark Leisure as we are expanding rapidly. Not only will Fun City – the children’s all-time favourite – be more accessible at newer locations but our smallest customers will be spoilt for choice with the launch of Fun Ville.
“All of our brands have been developed keeping in mind our consumers’ needs and safety. Fun City has been the strongest brand in the category and we are proud to be able to create different, customised offerings that cater to our diverse consumers with different requirements.”
Landmark already has Fun City locations in the UAE, Oman, Qatar and India.
