After turning off from the highway at the Abu Dhabi International Airport junction, the shells of innumerable villas come into view, lined up as far as the eye can see. Aldar Properties has more than 1300 villas in all at Al Raha Gardens – due for completion in December 2008 – and while that is certainly not excessive in a country crammed with bricks and mortar, it serves as an apt warning sign of the monumental changes ahead.
Four months after this visit, an even more startling vision came into view. The halls of the Arabian Travel Market were dominated by the large-scale plan of the skyscraper-strewn Saadiyat Island, due to be finished in 2018. Was this really Abu Dhabi? It looked more like Dubai and Manhattan rolled into one. The American link actually runs deep, with US companies Parson International (consultants) and Gensler Associates preparing the masterplan.
The expansion plans are in overdrive, as the wealthiest of all emirates plans to invest Dh47bn ($12.8bn) in projects in the next two years alone. Those villas certainly won’t be the last thing going up in Al Raha; a beach city is planned, complete with numerous towers housing up to 120,000 people.
Property law
Abu Dhabi’s property law came into effect in August last year, when the government announced 99-year land ownership and renewable 50-year surface ownership to foreigners in specified areas. The only foreign ownership properties that have been announced since have been developments by Aldar Properties, but the intentions are clear.
Of the new wave of developments, Al Reem Island, a vast mixed-use development 300 metres off the north shore of Abu Dhabi, is leading the charge. A quarter of it will be devoted to Shams Abu Dhabi, which is being developed by Sorouh Real Estate, and it will feature the 83-storey Sky Tower, the city’s tallest, in the Gate district. Prices will start from Dh303 and Dh334 per square metre (m2) for residential and commercial space respectively.
Boston-based CRGA is designing Shams Abu Dhabi’s 8.5-hectare Central Park district. Its project manager is US company Hill International with 3D/I+PI (made up of US-based 3D/I, Bahrain’s Projacs International and Al Qudra Holding).
Reem Investments is ploughing its energies into Najmat Abu Dhabi, an $8bn residential and commercial project spread across business, art and village districts. It has appointed Malaysia’s KLCC Holdings to provide project management services while the infrastructure consultant is the UK team of Hyder Consulting with Halcrow.
The central business district will contain a range of 40 and 50-storey mixed-use towers surrounding the retail and entertainment district, with two iconic 80-storey buildings at the centre.
The first homes are due to be ready in 2008. Tamouh Investments’ Marina Square, which covers 4 million m2 and has a 70-30 residential-commercial split, completes the picture on Al Reem.
Population boom
With the population of Abu Dhabi predicted to double in the next ten years, the ambition-tinged projects are grounded in a commercial reality, with anything between 225,000 and 250,000 new housing units likely to be required.
In the mean time, tourism and real estate are working closely together. Abu Dhabi desperately needs more rooms to house visitors – 511 more rooms are coming on stream in 2007, 615 in 2008 and 956 by 2009 – and by constructing innovative buildings and major attractions, it hopes to attract more tourists.
Al Qudra Real Estate, a subsidiary of Al Qudra Holding PJSC, announced that its first project, the Danet Abu Dhabi, sold out off-plan a mere 45 days after launch.
The 210,000m2 development will comprise five districts, including 34 commercial and residential towers ranging in height from 15 to 23 storeys. The project, which will be completed within three years, will be the first development outside the investment zones in the emirate and will not be offered to expatriates.
Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Development and Investment Company is developing the Emirates Pearl, a hotel and serviced apartment resort, which will include a 240-metre tower along the Khalidiya coast, opposite the seven-star Emirates Palace Hotel. The resort, expected to take two years to build, centres around a 47-storey tower conceptualised in a new-generation podium-style designed by Austria’s award-winning architect Dennis Lems. The tower houses 352 spacious rooms and suites and 104 luxury apartments. In another major contract win, Turkey’s Nurol Group has been awarded the Dh650m main contract on the Khalidiya Rotana Hotel and residences on Abu Dhabi island.
Mega project
Sorouh is also moving ahead with its second mega project, Lulu Island, which contains 10 hotels and resorts, a conference and exhibition centre, and residential villas. The island, which will be linked to Abu Dhabi by bridges or a tunnel, will be a low-density development made up of beaches and park space.
Sorouh has also teamed up with Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Development and Investment Company to launch the Dh1bn Golf Gardens at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club. Work is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2008. The development, which will cover 347,000m2, will have 389 villas and town houses, which will be offered to UAE nationals. Hotak is the architect for the gated community.
A large residential component is also integral to the Al Gurm Resort, which will contain 59 luxury villas consisting of six three-bed villas, 26 four-beds, 18 five-beds and nine five-bed signature island villas. The eco-friendly development is being built on 1.8 million m2 of mangrove reserves. Aldar Properties has received bids from the local/Lebanese Arabian Construction Company, Saudi Oger and local/Belgian Six Construct Abu Dhabi, while tenders for the hotel component will be issued soon.
National Marine Dredging Company has started work on the dredging and Six Construct will assist with the rock work.
The $1.7bn Dolphin City, being built offshore and due to open 2009, will contain a 75-storey seven-star hotel and a number of residential and office towers.
Manazil Real Estate has the Dh250m Manazil Tower 1 and Manazil Tower 2 being built. “These projects target middle-class investors and are being sold at a very competitive Dh267 per square foot, considered one of the lowest in UAE,” says Abdul Mohsen Al Hammad, executive director at Manazil Real Estate.
Commercial sector
The commercial sector is just as busy. The first phase of Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Company’s (ADNEC) new exhibition venue should be ready by December. ADNEC’s new venue will include 174,000m2 of gross exhibition floor space and the existing Sheikh Zayed Grandstand will be fully refurbished.
ADNEC has launched the sale of plots at Capital Centre, the $2.2bn business and residential district being built around the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. Capital Centre will be a mixed-use development of hotels, residential and commercial towers, a retail zone and a marina.
Into the second phase
More than 20 companies have entered into negotiations to establish their operations in the Industrial City of Abu Dhabi (ICAD) phase 2, a commitment representing more than $1.9bn. Two steel plants are also being built in ICAD.
Dubai Aluminium Company (Dubal) and the Abu Dhabi investment vehicle Mubadala Development Company are to build an aluminium complex at the proposed Khalifa Port and Industrial Zone in Taweelah. It will be one of the largest single-site smelters in the world with a capacity of about 1.2 million tons.
Other large industrial projects include Abu Dhabi Polymers Company’s phase 3 expansion and Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company’s (Takreer) estimated $1bn gasoline and aromatics expansion scheme at Ruwais.
A new port costing $2.18bn (phase one), to be managed by Dubai Ports World, is under construction and the operations of the current Mina Zayed (Port Zayed) will shift to the new Khalifa Port within five years. The new port will have container terminals as well as dedicated bulk and general cargo terminals able to accommodate up to 33 million tons of cargo in the first phase. It will also be able to accommodate large container and dry bulk vessels. Australia’s Esquisse has prepared Mina Zayed’s masterplan.
The industrial zone covering 100 square kilometres near the port will cater for various industries such as base metals, heavy industry, chemicals, trade and logistics.
The Dh1bn Cert City is to be established by the Centre of Excellence, Research and Training (Cert), the commercial arm of the Higher Colleges of Technology.
CRSS International, part of the US’s Jacobs Group, has been appointed project management consultant for the new ministries complex covering 568,000m2 in Khalifa City.
Another major commercial development has seen Al Habtoor Engineering Enterprises starting work on the 80,000m2 expansion of the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.
Market redevelopment
Aldar Properties is working with the UK’s Foster & Partners for the proposed redevelopment of the central market but is no longer using project management consultants to manage its infrastructure developments. At Raha Beach, bids are under evaluation for the two remaining marina packages covering precincts A, B and C. The UK’s Maunsell is the consultant.
One of the most eye-catching stories of the year was the announcement of the $400m Guggenheim Museum on Saadiyat Island. The Frank Gehry-designed museum, which will display a prestigious collection of modernist and contemporary art, is scheduled for completion in 2011. It is expected to be the largest Guggenheim Museum in the world, and certainly one of the most expensive, with construction costs at about $213 per square metre.
