Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC) has awarded Germany’s Bauer the enabling works contract for the first phase of its Deyar al-Mafraq development in Abu Dhabi to provide accommodation for hotel staff.

The 115-day contract involves the contractor carrying out the piling and foundations work for the first phase of the project.

The phase covers two plots that will provide housing for about 2,000 hotel staff working at TDIC properties such as the St Regis Hotel & Residences, the Westin Hotel & Spa, the Eastern Mangrove, and the Angsana Resort & Spa.

TDIC will develop the first two plots, but will lease out the remaining ones to private investors.

The overall development covers an area of 712,000 square metres, with a total gross floor area of 1.67 million square metres. Once complete, it will be able to house 35,000 people.

The project will open in phases, starting in 2011.

In 2008 and 2009, TDIC built a labour camp complex on Saadiyat Island, at an estimated cost of AED700m ($191m). The complex will house about 30,000 labourers working on the AED100bn Saadiyat Island project.