Dubai: Over the Business Bay Crossing and beyond lies a district of Dubai which Emiratis call the New Deira, or Bur Deira.
Bur in Arabic denotes the desert, and there is a lot of it in this area. As you approach Mirdiff, the first thing you will notice is a huge sign advertising a shopping mall and then, suddenly, rows and rows of sand-coloured buildings.
Coming up from the underground parking at Uptown Mirdiff, the first sight is of an Emirates airline plane making a gradual descent; it is so low that the ‘SkyCargo' emblem is clearly visible.
Huthaifa Mohammad and his group of friends were enjoying coffee and conversation at Uptown Mirdiff, an open shopping area modelled on American lifestyle malls.
Far from the crowd
Emiratis love this area as it is a distance away from busy Dubai and offers them the open desert, plus all the facilities. Mohammad moved here seven years ago because Deira was "too rushed", he says. The area encompassing Mirdiff, Warqa and Al Khawaneej, is called "new Deira", he says.
The constant sound of planes landing does not seem to affect people living here. "We've got used to it," says Gareth Williams, a British expat. "It's subliminal now," he said, about the roar of the jets.
Zoe Jacob, a Pakistani who worked for Emirates, said the noise is not so bad if you close the balcony windows. "This place is great for children," she said, pushing her son Zayan in a shopping trolley.
She earlier lived in Bur Dubai, with its hustle and bustle. "It's a big change compared to that," she said. Her husband bought their apartment here three years ago.
"The price has dropped, a lot," she said. "We are paying off our loans."
Chady Kassis, marketing head of Uptown Mirdiff, says that the 500 villas which abut the shopping arcade area are 100 per cent occupied. "There is not a single empty villa," he says.
Some owners who have bought the villas and apartments on leasehold for 99 years, have rented it out, and the rents are not that cheap. Jaafar Ali Jaffar Ali, manager promotions at Union Properties, says the rent for a two-bedroom apartment is Dh90,000.
Uptown is designed along the lines of a spa town. The townhouses and the rowhouses are planned around a grand piazza, which is the centrepiece of the community.
Kassis admits that a couple of shops in the piazza have closed down, but Jaafar Ali insists that only two have closed down. "I counted the number of shops that have shut down in a major mall," he said, noting that he counted up to 13. "Two [shopowners] are under litigation," he says. They apparently have shut down without informing Union Properties.
New concept
Uptown claims to be one of the first developments that offered outdoor shopping in Dubai. Kassis the marketing manager, says that the concept of Uptown has been very successful and that it has been replicated in the Motor City, where it is also called Uptown. "About 75 per cent has been sold," he says.
The open plaza is a great idea but it does not work in the summer time when the temperature is in its blazing high 40s. Mahmoud Ezzat manages a shop in Uptown and says that business is good. "The coffee shops have moved on to Mirdiff City Centre," he said.
"This used to be a brilliant place," says Kelly Williams. "The heat closed it down," she said. Gareth, her husband, however, feels that Uptown is a great place to live.
The only reason the couple is planning to move out is because their three-year-old son Ethan will be going to school soon. "It doesn't make sense for us to be in a car two hours every day," he says.
The couple have been living here since the past eight years and presently are paying a rent of Dh 90,000.
Rawan Sweileh, a pharmacist, commutes every day to Uptown from Al Ghusais. "This is a beautiful area," she says. "It's quiet, very quiet," she points out. She said commuting is not a hassle as there is no traffic problem as in some other areas of Dubai.
Still, as the afternoon shift started and buses started bringing in shopkeepers, there was a long line of cars at the main traffic light turning into Uptown.
Manageable traffic
But still it is not as bad in some gated communities where there is only one way in and one way out and you can see a line of cars slowly snaking in every evening or during the early morning rush.
One person who started liking the place only recently is teen Robin Jackson. "There are only small kids or adults here," she says. She moved in here with her mother last September.
"It's too quiet for me, but my mom likes it," she says. She wasn't sure what their rent was but she believed it was cheaper than most other places in Dubai.
"There are a number of IB [International Baccalaureate] schools around here," said Robin who will begin her studies next year.
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