Can you believe it? It’s already been one year since the Grand Millennium Al Wahda opened its doors in the heart of the city. Abu Dhabi Week met general manager Michael Sorgenfrey - who started his career as a chef - to find out what’s coming up for the hotel in the heart of the city.

What can we expect from Grand Millennium Al Wahda for the next year?

Soon we’ll be opening our Kids’ Club Wonderland, which will have all kinds of facilities including our kids’ pool. It will be the perfect place for guests and other visitors to the hotel to leave their children while they go to the gym, enjoy a spa treatment or do their shopping at LuLu.

We’re also looking at introducing a concierge who can do shopping for our residents; and we’re adding more choices for diabetics on all of our menus. We want to know what our guests really want and we’re always looking for ways to enlarge their lifestyle.

The bridge linking the Grand Millennium to Al Wahda Mall looks to be finished soon. How does that bridge stand to benefit the hotel?

I think the bridge will add value for everybody. Now we can offer a shopping package because it’s really an upper class shopping mall. Also, we’ve been in the news with our Biggest Shrinker promotion, we have our spa promotions going on and our membership for our gym is constantly increasing, so there are more and more opportunities for us to attract shoppers from the mall.