The UAE is to become home to what is being billed as the region’s first outdoor ice-skating rink, with an expansive Akoya Drive leisure project being planned for Dubai.

Developer Damac is seeking to create a 1.3km (0.8m) long, leisure district inspired by Beverly Hills' famous Rodeo Drive, a strip intended to rival the Champs Elyseés in Paris, France and the Croisette in Cannes.

The developer is looking to build the high-end complex as part of its 42,000,000sq ft (3,901,927sq m) Donald Trump-designed, golf course-led offering, with an aim of creating one of the longest outdoor parades of shops and restaurants in the country.

The shopping district is to feature four piazzas providing access to the artificial ice rink, as well as an outdoor cinema, a nine-hole putting green, a children’s play area and a number of other leisure and retail offerings.

Damac is yet to reveal costs for the project, though the developer is expected to issue tenders for enabling work this summer, while those behind the project are seeking a completion date of 2018.