By Jude Njoku

When UACN Property Development Company, UPDC PLC acquired the former Durbar hotel in 2002 under the privatisation programme of the Federal Government, the company’s goal according to the Group Managing Director of UAC Plc, Mr Larry Ettah, was to turn the run-down hotel into a tourist destination that will reshape the entire landscape of Amuwo-Odofin.

This desire, he said, was partly achieved in July 2011, when Golden Tulip Hotel consisting of 349 rooms and conference centre was commissioned.

Today, that dream of making the location a tourist destination has almost being actualised with the construction of the N5 billion Festival Mall and 192-unit Festac Residences nearing completion.

Festival Mall in Amuwo-Odofin, Lagos

In fact June 2015 has been set for the delivery of Festival Mall while the first phase of the Residences is almost completed.

Conducting newsmen round the projects sites last week, UPDC’s Technical Operations Director, Mr Brian Greenway, General Manager, Sales & Marketing, Ms Titilayo Gbadamosi and the Project Managers of the two schemes, Messrs Frank Formah Kehinde Fabiyi gave detailed accounts of the two developments.

Specifically, Festival Mall which construction started in May, 2013, sits on a 3.3 hectares parcel of land within the premises of Golden Tulip Hotels.

Central eating place

Two anchor tenants -Messrs Shoprite and Silver Bird Cinema have taken up the two major wings of the imposing mall. There are two main entrances into the mall. The Shoprite box is about 3,200 sq metres including the storage area. There is a backup house where the offices are located. The Silver Bird Box measures about 1,200 Square metres with four screens (halls) and a common area. There are a total of 46 shops of different sizes. All the shops have been sold. There is also provision for a food court with a central eating place.

“ We want to create a node where there will be entertainment and other facilities. The node is the hotel, the Residences and the Shopping Mall. It is quite an important node in this area of Amuwo Odofin. We don’t know of any other mall in the vicinity,” Mr Greenway said.

The Residences is an eight-storey block of flats consisting of 192 apartments. A further breakdown shows that the block which was part of the former Durbar Hotel, is being renovated into 144 units of two-bedroom luxury apartments and 48 units of one-bedroom apartments.

The project which will be fully completed at the end of 2015, at an estimated cost of N2.74 billion.

Prominent facilities being provided include borehole and treatment plant, independent power plant, gas infrastructure, HVC cooling system, sewage treatment plant and fire-fighting sprinklers. Close-circuit television cameras CCTV will be installed in each floor of the building and at the security point on the ground floor to ensure that unwanted persons do not gain access into the building.

The Residences and Festival Mall will be managed by UPDC. The Residences will be serviced by five elevators. Being a mixed node, occupants of the building will have easy access to both the hotels and shopping mall.