Doha Festival City won the prestigious ‘Best Future Project’ at the Global RLI Awards 2012 gala dinner recently at the Natural History Museum in London. The Future Project category recognises projects where construction has not been completed. A prestigious panel of highly-respected industry leaders from around the globe have judged architectural excellence, innovation in materials, equipment and new techniques and the new impact that each development will have upon the local community. The three other finalists in the same category along with Doha Festival City were the Doha Marina Mall, the Copenhagen Designer Outlets and Singapore’s National Heart Centre. Representing Bawabat Al-Shamal Real Estate Company (Basrec), the owner and developer of Doha Festival City, chief executive officer Kareem Shamma said: “We are delighted that Doha Festival City has been awarded the Best Future Project 2012. Our development will offer a diverse mix of entertainment, hospitality and auto showrooms along with a world-class tenant mix of over 500 shopping and dining outlets, including the first Ikea store in Qatar – all inter-connected under one roof and covering a total of 260,000sqm of gross leasable area, making it the largest and most diversified offering in Qatar”. Doha Festival City development director Greg Douglas noted: “With this award, the Festival City brand adds a new milestone to its development standards and quality. Construction is making significant progress and our first phase is on target to open early next year.” The Global RLI Awards 2012 celebrates the success of retail and leisure developments and operators across the world and recognise the success and creativity of the industry’s most impressive developments, leading retailers, leisure operators and affiliated business partners, through concepts, initiatives and design excellence.