Bahrain is planning to restart construction work in 2017 on the Salam Beach Resort & Spa development, which was being built by Dubai investors before the 2008 global financial crisis.

The scheme is now being developed by a project company in which Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat Holding Company has about a two-thirds stake and Dubai Properties Group holds a one-third stake.

“We are actively working with Dubai Properties Group,” Khalid al-Rumaihi, CEO of Bahrain Economic Development Board and Mumtalakat board member told MEED on 2 June. "The project was being built and was halted. The construction we have evaluated is fine so we do not have to demolish it. We want to complete the project by 2020.”

Construction is planned to start in September 2017, which means tendering is likely to start early next year. A design consultant is expected to be appointed in the third quarter of this year.

The original design, prepared by Sama Dubai, which became part of Dubai Properties Group in 2009, involved building a resort similar in style and concept to Dubai’s Madinat Jumeirah, some 25 kilometres southwest of Manama close to the Bahrain Grand Prix circuit. Development work on the scheme began in 2005 and at the time the development was estimated to be worth $545m.

A joint venture of Bahrain’s Nass Corporation and South Africa’s Murray & Roberts was appointed as the contractor for the project, but the deal was terminated in 2009.