Dubai International City plans second-phase expansion

12 December 2003
The local property developer Nakheel announced on 10 December the second-phase development works for the Dubai International City, previously known as China Town (MEED 19:9:03).

To be built over an area of 800 hectares, the mixed-use project calls for the construction of residential apartments, a shopping mall, entertainment facilities, factory outlets, warehousing and related works. Six major facilities are planned under the development. They are:

Central district- to be built over 21 hectares, it calls for the construction of 11 office and residential blocks;

Dragon Mart- previously known as China Mart, it involves the construction of a 150,000-square-metre shopping mall to be built in the shape of a dragon and a 30,000-square-feet warehousing facility;

Residential district- calls for the construction of several residential units;

Lake district- involves the construction of 25 residential units, a lake, a park, and retail units;

Forbidden City- to be built over 240,000 square metres, it calls for the construction of themed Chinese gardens, residential and retail units, two open-air theatres, a museum of performing arts and related works;

Dubai Gates- calls for the construction of 10 purpose-built showrooms.

Three contracts, worth a total of AED 531 million ($145 million), have already been awarded on the Dragon Mart and residential district packages. The largest of the contracts, worth AED 235 million ($64 million), has been awarded to the local Al-Shafar General Transport & Contractingfor construction of the Dragon Mart and related facilities. The local Ali Moosa Contractingand Union Engineering Construction (UNEC) have contracts worth AED 296 million ($81 million) and AED 150 million ($41 million) respectively to build 25 apartment buildings (MEED 6:6:03).

In July, an AED 173 million ($47 million) contract was also awarded to the local Bin Hafeez General Contracting & Transport Establishmentfor infrastructure works.

Tenders for the other construction packages are due to be issued in early 2004. The US' DMJM International is the overall master planner and architect. The consultant for the infrastructure and residential district packages is Lebanon's Associated Consultants Engineers (ACE) International(MEED 8:5:03).

A MEED Subscription...

Subscribe or upgrade your current MEED.com package to support your strategic planning with the MENA region’s best source of business information. Proceed to our online shop below to find out more about the features in each package.