The Abu Dhabi-based developer Eagle Hills is to undertake its first project in the UAE, an Address Hotel-branded resort and serviced apartments in Fujairah.
The company’s development manager, Mohammed Al Ridha, said at Cityscape Abu Dhabi on Tuesday that the resort will be built at Sharm in Fujairah, which is about 3 kilometres south of existing resorts at Al Aqah beach, and 21km south of Dibba Al Fujairah.
The project is being built on a 1.2-million square feet plot of land and will contain an Address Hotel with 196 rooms, including a presidential suite and family suites, 10 five-bed villas overlooking a hotel plaza and 177 serviced apartments – 102 two-bed, 60 three-bed and 12 four-bed units – spread over five low-rise blocks.
These will look out on to a 500 metre-long beach promenade, and there will be parking for 432 cars.
Eagle Hills declined to give a development value for the project or indicative sale prices of the units, stating that these would be revealed at a later date.
Mr Al Ridha said the serviced apartments would all either have “partial or full” sea views and will be managed by Emaar Hospitality Group. They will be available on a freehold basis only to Emiratis and other GCC investors.
“It’s all Address-branded. It’s all serviced. You can put it back into a rental pool and we will take good care of it,” Mr Al Ridha said.
Grading of the site is due to begin in June, and it is expected that the main contract for the resort’s construction will begin in September or October. Eagle Hills is currently “in the process” of preparing the tender, he said.
“We have all of the authorities’ approval, it’s just a matter of fixing the prices and all of that. You will see things happening there very soon,” Mr Al Ridha said, stating that the project should be ready for handover by mid-2019.
Jaidev Menezes, the corporate director for business development at Emaar Hospitality Group, said he did not believe there was an existing development in Fujairah that was comparable to Eagle Hills’ proposed scheme.
“In terms of infrastructure, in terms of the location and in terms of what they are trying to do, there’s nothing like this. There are a few other hotels that have announced and branded residences, but nothing in terms of the scale and quality is comparable.”
He said that it was “only logical” for Emaar Hospitality to use the platform it had built with The Address brand in Dubai to roll out to other emirates, GCC states and overseas locations.
According to a first-quarter 2016 Northern Emirates report published at the International Property Show in Dubai on Monday, demand for smaller units is growing in Fujairah. Although prices for bigger units fell back slightly during the quarter, one-bed apartments increased in price by 30 per cent, and currently cost between Dh25,000 and Dh35,000 per year to rent.
mfahy@thenational.ae
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