UAE-based real estate developer Ishraqah for Development has asked construction firms to bid for the contract to build its Onyx Towers development in Dubai for a second time even though it has already awarded the contract to local developer Arabtec Construction for AED687m ($187m).

Ishraqah hopes that it will attract a lower offer for the work than Arabtec bid before it won the contract in August.

Interested firms, including Arabtec, are preparing prices for the contract to build three towers of 14, 16 and 25 storeys in height on Sheikh Zayed Road, next to the Greens and the Emaar Business Park. The total built-up area of the development will be 202,800 square metres.

The project manager on the development is Egypt’s Masharea Project Management. The engineering consultant is Kuwait’s KEO International Consultants. Ishraqah is jointly owned by Al-Zahran Group and Bin Mahfouz Group, both of Saudi Arabia.

Since Arabtec won the Onyx Towers job, only one other real estate developer has awarded a major real estate contract in Dubai.

In September, Trident International Holdings, a Hong Kong-based developer, appointed Lebanon’s Arabian Construction Company to build a AED1.5bn, 618-metre-tall tower in Dubai Marina.

The only other major construction award in Dubai in 2009 was the Dubai Department of Civil Aviation’s AED4.8bn contract to build Concourse 3 at Dubai International airport, which went to local contractor Alec.