Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Development Company has invited companies to bid by 10 February for the contract to design and build a campus on Saadiyat Island for New York University Abu Dhabi.

Mubadala has already prequalified various contractors for the tender.

They include Greece’s Aktor; a joint venture of the UAE’s Al-Habtoor Engineering Enterprises and South Africa’s Murray & Roberts Contractors (Middle East); the local/UK Al-Futtaim Carillion; the local/Lebanese Arabian Construction Company; Saudi Arabia’s El-Seif Engineering & Contracting; and the local National Projects Construction (NPC) with Singapore’s Sembawang Engineers & Contractors. Two other local firms, Alec and Arabtec Construction, have also both been prequalified.

The campus, in Saadiyat Island’s cultural district, will have lecture theatres, a library, IT buildings, laboratories, accommodation and sports facilities (MEED 6:7:09).

The US’ Rafael Vinoly Architects has prepared the masterplan for the university.

Mubadala is developing two other universities in Abu Dhabi, Zayed University in Khalifa City and the Paris-Sorbonne University campus on Reem Island. The Al-Habtoor/Murray & Roberts joint venture is the construction contractor on both.

Khalifa University of Science, Technology & Research (Kustar) is also planning to build a campus at the Capital City District development in Abu Dhabi. Local developer Aldar Properties is managing that development (MEED 1:12:09).