Nakheel has announced that it has signed of a Letter of Intent (LoI) related to a management agreement with Thailand's Minor Hotel Group for a new 372-room hotel at Ibn Battuta Mall, whereby the hotel will be managed under the AVANI Hotels & Resorts brand. This comes as the second collaboration for Nakheel and Minor Hotel Group in the last five months. In September, the two companies announced a planned joint venture for a 500-room AVANI beachfront resort at Deira Islands. AVANI Ibn Battuta is part of Nakheel's planned 4.7 million sqft expansion to Ibn Battuta Mall, which is set to add another 766,000 sq ft of space. The number of visitors to the mall is c22 million a year. (Arabian Business)