Construction is set to start on the second phase of Abu Dhabi’s landmark Gate Towers development on Reem Island following the award of a Dh2.59 billion contract to Arabtec.
Arabtec Construction won the contract to build the 61-storey block of flats and hotel complex in the Shams area, which makes up the final leg of the master planned four-leg structure.
“We are confident that 2014 will be a special year not only in terms of new awards but also with regard to the progress of implementation of our growth strategy and the striking of more local and international partnerships,” said Hasan Abdullah Ismaik, the managing director and chief executive of Arabtec.
The company said it would build a residential tower of 613 furnished apartments as well as a 15-floor tower, which would comprise a 400-room five-star hotel and 200 serviced apartments.
It declined to name the developer behind the project.
Although graphics show that the final residential skyscraper would not be connected to the recently completed three existing Gate Towers, it will be connected to the hotel by a ballroom and a 4,600 square metre shopping area.
In total the new project will comprise 350,000 sq metres, including 3,275 sq metres of cafes and restaurants and 3,795 sq metres of function space. It will be built on a 32,000 sq metre plot.
Gate Towers was designed by the Abu Dhabi developer Sorouh before the global financial crisis and before that company merged with rival Aldar last year.
Sorouh originally planned to build the entire project itself, but when development values tumbled in 2009, the developer took the decision to split the project into two, developing a first phase of 3,533 apartments in three towers connected by the world’s highest sky bridge and a lower arc-shaped block.
In December 2011 Sorouh announced it had sold the second phase of Gate Towers to an unnamed sub-developer. As part of the deal Sorouh also took back from the investor a previously sold marina plot in the Shams area and asked for assurances that it would build the final phase of the development in accordance with Sorouh’s master plan.
Construction work on the project, designed by the Architecture & Planning Group, is scheduled to begin before the end of March and is estimated to take 36 months to complete.
Arabtec said negotiations were under way with a number of world-leading hospitality brands for the management of the hotel and serviced apartments. The company added that the contract award meant that Arabtec’s backlog of schemes it was working on had now crossed Dh33 billion, the highest in the company’s 38-year history.
“This is a further indication that development activity on Reem Island is starting to return,” said William Neill, the head of Cluttons’ Abu Dhabi office.
“Over the past few months we have been asked to conduct a number of new development appraisals and property valuations on the island as developers start to look at resuming work on residential and commercial schemes and we expect this trend to continue throughout 2014 and into 2015 as house prices and rents increase.”
lbarnard@thenational.ae
