Dubai Pearl renamed to Pearl Dubai as project size triples
The Dh4 billion Dubai Pearl project, which was suspended due to reasons best known to the industry, is being revived as a Dh13 billion ($3.5 billion) project and with a new name, Pearl Dubai, industry sources told The Business Weekly.
The erstwhile Dubai Pearl project was conceived and taken forward by the Dubai-based Omnix group in 2002, but had to be suspended before it could make any substantial progress.
According to Omnix Group, the developers of the project, Dubai Pearl would have accommodated a complete micro-urban environment appealing to the different cultures, nationalities and age groups of Dubai, the UAE and the region.
However, Technology, E-Commerce and Media Free Zone (TECOM), the master developers of the project, took over the project from Omnix Group early this year, and after several rounds of negotiations, sold it to a consortium led by the Abu Dhabi-based Al Fahim Group, which has got large investment interests throughout the UAE.
Pearl Dubai is considered to be the first property development project undertaken by the Al Fahim Group in Dubai. Located in the heart of Tecom, the project is expected to be the biggest private sector project once completed.
The new project will have a built-up area in excess of 11 million square feet and out of which 7.5 million square feet will be free-hold development. Pearl Dubai will have six five star hotels, a retail mall measuring up one million square feet, luxury commercial space, and different types of residential spaces including villas and apartments.
The marketing exercise of the project, scheduled to be completed by 2010, will commence during this month itself.
"Not only that the built-up area and the project cost are revised upwards substantially, the very face of the blue-print itself has seen a sea change," source familiar with the project told The Business Weekly.
Pearl Dubai, which would have been one of the first and most unique projects in the UAE, still holds the potential to be 'different' owing to its locational advantage and the most elegant design.
