Meraas reviews $95bn Jumeirah Gardens

Meraas is currently reviewing the $95bn property project Jumeirah Gardens in the Satwa district. According to a spokesperson, Meraas is reviewing their business strategy, as well as the phasing and rollout of the Jumeirah Gardens. More details will be clarified at the start of next year, but this could mean that Meraas are reassesing their project due to the global financial crisis.

Jumeirah Gardens was officially launced at Cityscape Dubai in October this year, and has received huge interest from all over the world ever since. The project will consist of seven distinct areas, and originally scheduled to be completed within 12 years.

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Jumeirah Gardens close-up

Meraas Development on monday revealed their plans for Jumeirah Gardens, a Dh350bn (USD $95bn) mixed-use project. Jumeirah Gardens will stretch north of Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai’s main thoroughfare linking it to the emirate and UAE capital of Abu Dhabi, 150km to the south. Construction of the first phase of the project has already begun, and the first buildings are due for handover in the fourth quarter of 2011, the company said.

UAERush will follow this project closely, and we now present you with more images of this amazing development (click on image for large view).

Dubai unveils $95bn ‘new city’ project

A Dubai government firm yesterday announced it will build a ‘new city’ in the emirate at a projected cost of $95bn, shrugging off the global financial turmoil.

The announcement came one day after Dubai developers Nakheel said it planned to build a tower which will stand more than one kilometre tall (3,280ft), beating the city’s own world record.
The mixed-use Jumeirah Gardens development will be “an integrated city within a city”, to be built over 12 years, Meraas Development said at the opening of Cityscape Dubai 2008, a four-day international real estate fair.

Dubai already boasts the world’s tallest building, the yet to be completed Burj Dubai tower, which reached a height of 688m (2,257ft) at the start of September and is still growing, according to developers Emaar.
It now boasts 160 storeys, the highest skyscraper in the world, Emaar said.

Jumeirah Gardens will stretch north of Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai’s main thoroughfare linking it to the emirate and UAE capital of Abu Dhabi, 150km to the south. Meraas Development said the project would comprise business, residential and leisure facilities linked by a transportation network and including some of the city’s biggest towers, and with a large canal running through the development. Construction of the first phase of the project has already begun, and the first buildings are due for handover in the fourth quarter of 2011, the company said.

The announcement came at the opening of the Cityscape exhibition, an annual feature on the property calendar of Dubai, which is in the midst of a construction frenzy. Some 1,500 firms from 150 countries are taking part in the event.

Nakheel CEO Chris O’Donnell told reporters on the sidelines of Cityscape that the skyscraper project announced on Sunday “will be over one kilometre and take 10 years to build”.
The tower, part of the Nakheel Harbour and Tower project, is expected to cost Dh140bn ($38bn), O’Donnell said. But Dubai has not been spared the turmoil on world markets. Dubai Financial Market dropped 7.6% yesterday to its lowest level in more than 18 months. The market has lost around 14% in the past two days, pulled down by the real estate sector. O’Donnell said Nakheel’s new project was likely to have a psychological effect on the real estate market but denied this was the reason behind the public launch.
“We’ve been working on the project for six years,” he said, adding that work on the foundations was already under way.

“The project is going to go through two or three economic cycles… when you’re running a business you can’t just stop at the middle of the downturn,” O’Donnell said.

“We believe in what we’re doing, (even though) it is an unfortunate time.”

Nakheel is behind some of Dubai’s most grandiose projects. It is building three palm tree-shaped artificial islands, as well as ‘The World’ — a cluster of some 300 islands looking like a blurred vision of the planet’s nations—off Dubai’s coast.

Scores of other ambitious ventures are under way or in the pipeline, including Dubailand, a series of billion-dollars entertainment and leisure projects touted as the Middle East’s very own Orlando. –AFP

Gulf Times

Meraas dreams of a 2.4km tall tower

It may seem like a tall order, but a Dubai developer is considering building a tower three times the height of the Burj Dubai.

Three designs have been drawn up for the planned Jumeirah Garden City project, with the most breathtaking being a 2.4km-high edifice called the Dubai City Tower.

Renderings of the Dubai City Tower show six separate buildings twisting into a single structure dubbed a “vertical city”, capped by a 400-metre “energy-producing spire”.
“The Dubai City Tower pushes every edge of building design,” says the design proposal, which is circulating on the internet.

“For centuries man has pushed construction toward the heavens. The sheer scale of this project will focus the world’s eye towards the city of Dubai, but it will be the tower’s design and image that will preserve Dubai City Tower’s grandeur into the future.”

Meraas, the property developer and private equity fund of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, is behind the project, according to a consultant for the company and a developer familiar with the plans.
The Dubai City Tower would dwarf the Burj Dubai, which reached 688 metres earlier this month. Emaar, the developer of the Burj Dubai, has kept the final height secret in part to prevent other developers from announcing taller projects.

The design prospectus for the Dubai City Tower, which does not list its developer or architect, shows the tower looming over the waterfront, near a marina.

It would have 400 storeys with each set of 100 storeys forming a “neighbourhood” and a Sky Plaza operating as a “town centre”. A vertical bullet train would ferry people from one “neighbourhood” to another.
The building would be fitted with solar panels and wind turbines, and biospheres that double as recreational parks and water purification centres.

Carol Willis, the director of the Skyscraper Museum in New York and a professor of urban studies at Columbia University, said the project appeared “buildable in technical terms” but economically difficult to justify.

Alastair Collins, of the international Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, said that height was the easy part with skyscrapers.
“The hardest part is the servicing of the height: the transportation, power, water and waste disposal,” he said, adding that such a tower would also produce swarms of traffic.

Another of the plans for the Jumeirah Garden City project includes designs for a building called the Atrium City Towers, which would incorporate three tall towers and was designed by architects Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill. Mr Smith also designed the Burj Dubai.
A spokesman for Meraas declined to comment on the designs, but said the company would reveal its plans at Cityscape Dubai on Oct 6. An advertisement for Meraas on the Cityscape website hints at a design similar to the Atrium project.

“They are seeking to create a standout building in that location, which is otherwise going to be really low-level,” the consultant said. “It will have the best quality hotels and commercial space in the heart of what is going to be a predominantly residential area with gardens.”

Meraas was created in 2007 and gained attention this year when it joined a coalition of investors that financed Boston Properties’ purchase of the General Motors building in New York for US$2.8 billion (Dh10.28bn). It was the most expensive office building sale in American history.

Jumeirah Garden City will be located in two districts, Satwa and Al Wasl, that are being razed to make way for the new development. The project includes a canal system and several iconic buildings.
“Sheikh Mohammed likes competition,” a consultant familiar with the company said. “He wants to add another layer to the other government-backed developers to challenge Sama, DP World and Nakheel.”

The company has also been hiring veterans in the Dubai market, including Binod Shankar, the former chief financial officer of Dubai Waterfront Corporation; Rashid Doleh, the former chief executive of Emaar Malls Group; and Vivek Rao, the former head of finance at Tamweel.
A mile-high tower is planned by Kingdom Holdings for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait also has a 1km tower in the works. Nakheel, another Dubai developer, is expected to announce a tower to rise higher than 1km in Al Burj, according to published reports.

The National