You can go to The District at Dubai Mall today and find a perfume shop next to Home Bakery Kitchen. That is a different kind of fact from Emaar’s announcement that its wider mall expansion would add 240 luxury shops and food and beverage outlets. One gives you a route through the building. The other describes the size of a development programme. If you are planning a visit, start with the precinct and the exact unit you want.
This tracker covers the named Dubai Mall property in Downtown Dubai. It follows The District from Emaar’s expansion announcement through current mall and tenant listings, then shows how to distinguish the precinct from other parts of the mall. The examples and routes were checked on 6 November 2026.
What Emaar announced, and what The District added
On 4 June 2024 Emaar announced an AED 1.5 billion expansion of Dubai Mall. The announcement described 240 additional luxury stores and food and beverage outlets and said the contractor was mobilising on site. The number identifies the scale announced at that stage. Contractor mobilisation tells you about preparations for work, while a public opening or a branch listing tells you what a visitor can use. Emaar’s June 2024 expansion announcement
Emaar’s 6 May 2025 account presents The District as a ground-floor precinct near the ice rink that reworks the former Souk area. The same account refers to 279 concepts, broken into 198 retail and 81 food and beverage outlets, and describes early openings with further phases to follow. Emaar’s property page still uses 240 for the announced expansion. These figures are published in different descriptions, and the pages give no reconciliation that would let a reader use either figure as a total of trading units. For a trip, the mall’s current precinct page and branch directories are more precise. Emaar’s account of The District · Emaar’s Dubai Mall property overview
The current mall page describes a precinct centred on homegrown fashion, beauty, fragrance, lifestyle and food. That is the intended character of the area. A shopping list still needs the next level of detail, particularly when one brand has two shops inside Dubai Mall. Look for a branch page that names The District and gives the floor, unit or nearby landmark. The District visitor guide
Four branches you can identify in The District
Ramasat lists a ground-floor unit in The District, next to Home Bakery, under reference TDM-GS-036. It also lists another Dubai Mall shop on the first floor opposite the Waterfall. The two entries have their own schedules and contacts. If someone has arranged to meet you at Ramasat, send the precinct and floor along with the brand name. The locator gives enough information to avoid crossing the building to the wrong branch. Ramasat’s branch locator
Plethora also lists a ground-floor fragrance shop in The District separately from another branch on Dubai Mall’s first floor. That gives someone comparing perfume two verifiable fragrance stops within the precinct without assuming they have the same brands or stock. If a particular scent is the reason for your visit, use the contact for the District branch on the retailer’s locator. A brand or range on a retailer’s website may be available through a different shop. Plethora’s Dubai Mall branch listings
Home Bakery Kitchen identifies its Dubai Mall location as The District, ground floor, Gate No. 2. The operator uses the full Kitchen name in its location guide, which helps distinguish the unit from a shorter Home Bakery listing elsewhere in the mall. Use that location as the reference if you are combining a meeting with a visit to a nearby shop. Home Bakery’s location guide
Klay by Karak House is named in Emaar’s early District account, and its owner’s current brand page still lists the District branch alongside other locations. This gives you both an early precinct record and a current branch reference. Use the operator’s directions link for the District unit rather than a listing for another Klay. The branch is included here to locate a stop inside the precinct. For a particular opening time or item, consult the operator’s current information. Emaar’s early District outlets · Klay’s branch links
The four examples also show how to read a list of new tenants. The fragrance stores provide current branch evidence, while the two food businesses connect the early precinct record with current operator pages. Neither kind of source supplies a complete inventory of every open unit. If you have seen a name in launch coverage and cannot find it in the current directory, check the brand’s own locator before planning around it. Look for the name of the branch, its floor and a current contact. A list that only repeats the brand without naming the unit can easily lead you to an older location in the same building.
Primark is a confirmed opening at Dubai Mall
Primark announced on 26 March 2026 that its first UAE store had opened at Dubai Mall in partnership with Alshaya. Its launch release describes more than 60,000 square feet on one sales floor, spanning clothing, home and beauty. Its current store list separately identifies Dubai Mall, City Centre Mirdif and Mall of the Emirates. Choose the Downtown entry when following directions for this branch. The company release confirms that the store opened in Dubai Mall. It does not identify the unit as part of Emaar’s AED 1.5 billion works or establish that it belongs to The District. Primark’s March opening notice · Primark’s current store list
That distinction matters in a mall that is adding brands while it develops new areas. A new tenant can be useful to someone visiting even when its opening notice tells you little about the progress of the larger development. If your trip includes Primark and a stop in The District, check each location on the mall’s directory and map. Start with the stop that has a fixed meeting time or a specific item you want to buy. Use the second store’s entry to work out the route from there. The opening date gives the branch context, while the current map gives you the route inside the mall. Dubai Mall’s visitor guide and directory
The mall’s own news feed gives another example of how to use an opening listing. It promotes a Real Madrid flagship at Dubai Mall during an October–November feature window. The club’s store list independently identifies the shop on the ground floor. The feature window is a useful way to find the news item. It does not establish a final day of trading or place the shop inside The District. If you are looking for the retail store, use the club’s store list and the mall’s map. The similarly named Real Madrid World is a separate attraction at Dubai Parks and Resorts. Dubai Mall opening features · Real Madrid official store list · Club notice for the separate theme park
Keep the names of the mall’s other areas separate
The District is one of several names used in Dubai Mall’s current visitor guide. Fashion Avenue has its own directory and spans different floors. Chinatown and Fountain Views also have their own visitor entries. Zabeel is a separate extension that opened in 2019, according to Visit Dubai, with a link bridge connecting it to the mall. Those names are useful for finding an entrance or a tenant. Their presence in the current visitor guide does not date them to The District’s opening or the 2024 expansion announcement. Current mall precinct guide · Fashion Avenue directory · Visit Dubai’s Zabeel opening history
There is a similar naming difference between the former Souk area Emaar describes as reworked into The District and Souk Al Bahar, which the current visitor guide lists separately. If older directions say “the Souk,” use a current map and the store’s exact branch name to make sure you are headed to the right place. For The District, the ground-floor precinct near the ice rink is a useful starting point. For a meeting, include a specific unit, floor or entrance so the other person can verify it independently. Emaar’s precinct location · Current visitor area names
Plan the approach to the branch, then the trip home
For a short visit, open the branch page before choosing where to arrive. Home Bakery Kitchen’s own Gate No. 2 reference is specific to that unit. If you are going to Ramasat instead, the unit reference and nearby bakery are more useful than the name of the mall alone. For someone arriving by car, compare the nearest approach with the current parking conditions. Dubai Mall publishes a separate parking FAQ for zones and access. A directory’s parking suggestion is a direction to check, while the parking operator’s current terms determine what applies to the stay. Home Bakery Kitchen location · Ramasat branch directions · Dubai Mall parking FAQ
Metro users should treat the January 2026 station agreement as a separate story. RTA and Emaar announced an agreement to expand Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall Metro Station. That notice concerns station capacity and infrastructure. It does not establish an opening date for new retail areas or tell you which route inside the mall is best for your stop. For travel now, use current station and mall directions. For a future station change, look for an RTA notice that gives the date and explains which access arrangements are changing. RTA station expansion agreement
If you are making a short stop at two shops in The District, group the unit references before choosing a meeting point. For example, the retailer locator puts the District Ramasat beside Home Bakery, and the bakery operator gives Gate No. 2. Those two clues are enough to agree on a more useful location than “near the shops.” If someone is meeting you at a different floor or is coming from Zabeel, send the exact unit link so they can use the map from their own arrival point. Ramasat unit and landmark · Home Bakery Kitchen gate reference
For a visit built around a purchase, ask the branch about stock before relying on a catalogue. A fragrance house with more than one shop at the mall may list a range online without saying where every item can be sampled. The two District fragrance locators identify different contacts for the relevant branches. If a particular scent matters, those contacts are more useful than the precinct’s general description. If the visit is for browsing, the confirmed floor and current opening information are usually the details to keep. Ramasat branch contacts · Plethora branch contacts
The mall’s What’s New page can help you discover an opening or an event, while its map and directory help with the trip itself. Check the date on a promotion and the exact shop entry separately. A pop-up can have a defined run, and a permanent shop can be promoted only for a few weeks. If the same announcement names both an event and a tenant, verify which of those two dates affects your visit. Dubai Mall’s What’s New page and map
Use Emaar’s announcements to follow the wider build-out, the precinct map to find the right part of the property, and the exact branch page to confirm your stop. Those three checks let you plan a visit around the places already listed without treating an expansion total as a shopping directory.
When you save an opening for later, keep the date and source alongside the branch name. If a later notice changes an entrance or adds another location, you can update the relevant stop without changing your understanding of the whole expansion.
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