Contractor wins Masdar construction deal

31 January 2017

Mixed-use development will be built at Masdar City in Abu Dhabi

The local/Belgian Six Construct Abu Dhabi has been awarded an estimated AED1.1bn ($300m) contract to build a mixed-use development at Masdar City in Abu Dhabi.

The project will be made up of about seven mid-rise buildings with apartments, offices and retail space including shops, cafés and a supermarket spread over a gross floor area of 100,000 square metres. Each building will have access to amenities such as gyms and swimming pools.

Due for completion in mid-2019, the development will have more than 800 apartments, each designed to meet a minimum 3 Pearl rating according to Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council’s Estidama green building framework. This will result in energy and water savings of up to 40 per cent compared to conventional buildings of a similar size in Abu Dhabi.

The project will also have direct access to the My City Centre shopping mall and be served by transport links, including the city’s planned Light Rail Transit and Group Rapid Transit systems.

There are already approximately 2,000 apartments are either under construction or in design at Masdar City, either being developed by Masdar directly or by third-party investors.

These projects will bring the residential population at the city to more than 3,500 people over the next three years.

Masdar City has more than 175,000 sq m of completed buildings, fully leased and occupied to date. A further 700,000 sq m of construction is either planned or has firm development agreements in place. This will include additional schools, offices, hotels, shops, restaurants and private homes.

In mid-January, Masdar invited companies to participate in the next phase of its driverless personal rapid transit (PRT) system. Formal entry and evaluation criteria for the competition will be announced by the end of February, the company said in a statement. Masdar said the selected solution must be “driverless, autonomous and emissions free.”

Earlier in January, Dubai developer Majid al-Futtaim (MAF) is set to build a new community mall at Masdar City. The company said it plans to invest up to AED300m ($81m) in the My City Centre Masdar Mall, which is set for completion in 2018.

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