The Dubai developer Nakheel has awarded contracts worth Dh563 million for construction projects at two of its delayed Dubai mega communities.
In a statement yesterday Nakheel said it had awarded three contracts to builders for new construction in its Al Furjan and International City projects in Dubai.
Ginco General Contracting was awarded a Dh310.6 million contract to build 249 homes at Al Furjan while United Engineering Construction had won a Dh215.4m contract to build another 152 homes at the scheme. Under both contracts, construction is due for completion in 18 months.
Nakheel started selling 400 off- plan homes in the new phase of Al Furjan in October with terraced houses going for around Dh2.85m and villas selling for Dh4.56m.
Nakheel also awarded a contract for Dh36.8m to Metac General Contracting to build a 79,000 square foot community shopping centre at International City close to Nakheel’s Dragon Mart outlet mall. Construction of the 24 shops and six restaurants is scheduled to take 12 months.
Al Furjan, near Jebel Ali, currently comprises 800 homes but was originally intended to include 4,000 homes by the anticipated completion date of June 2011. The project comprises 5.6 million sq metres.
International City was designed in 2004 along the lines of a traditional Arabian carpet, and was intended when complete to accommodate more than 60,000 low and medium-income residents. But the project was hit hard by the global financial downturn and construction slowed.
Nakheel, one of the highest-profile losers in the Dubai property crash, reported in January that the cash it collected from customers nearly doubled from Dh3.7bn in 2012 to Dh7.1bn in 2013 as homebuyers made payments on delayed projects.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
