Tecom Investments has invited contractors to bid by 19 March for a contract to build more mixed-use space at its Dubai Design District (D3) development.

Contractors were invited to submit prequalification documents for the works last year. 

The expansion to the business park is known as the Creative Community. The works are understood to involve building office and retail space next to the existing buildings at D3 with a total built-up are of about 300,000 square metres.

The consultants working on the scheme include the Tecom-owned Tamdeen as the project manager, the UK’s Foster + Partners, Canada’s WSP PB, and the local office of Rider Levett Bucknall.

The overall D3 development covers a total area of 21 million square feet, close to Mohammed bin Rashid City and adjacent to Dubai’s Business Bay.

It has been designed primarily as a business zone, with office space for more than 10,000 workers in the design, fashion and luxury sectors, but also as a retail and entertainment district.

It will have a 1.8 kilometre-long waterfront with retail, hotels, entertainment and residential.

There will be more than 2.5 million square feet of shopping space, as well as luxury, four-star and boutique hotels and furnished apartments with more than 4,000 rooms.

Phase one of the project was opened during the first half of 2015.