Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (Seha) has reopened the prequalification for the contract to build Sheikh Khalifa Medical City on Abu Dhabi island.

Seha decided to ask other contractors to prequalify after it changed one of the minimum prequalification requirements. When companies originally submitted documents in May, the minimum requirement was for firms to have completed a AED2bn ($544m) hospital project in the past 10 years. This threshold has now been lowered to AED1bn.

The proposed hospital will cover a total area of 3 million square feet and will combine general hospital facilities with a trauma centre, and women’s and paediatric centres, with a total of 838 beds. The central area of the proposed medical campus will contain restaurants, retail and education spaces. Construction work on the scheme is scheduled to start in 2013.

US-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill is the architect for the project.

The project will add to other healthcare facilities on the island, which make up Sheikh Khalifa Medical City. It was created in 2005 following the merger of all publicly held healthcare organisations on Abu Dhabi island. In 2007, it came under the management of US-based Cleveland Clinic.