Dubai-based developer Nakheel plans to tender construction contracts totalling more than AED6bn ($1.6bn) during 2014, as it continues to move forward with new projects.

“[In 2014], Nakheel will tender schemes with a minimum value of AED6bn of contracts, which is good news for construction,” says Ali Rashid Lootah, chairman of the developer.

Nakheel’s plans include retail and hospitality projects that will support its existing and future portfolio of residential developments, as well as the Dubai Expo 2020, which is expected to attract more visitors to the emirate. “[With the Expo 2020] we see growth, especially for hospitality and retail, and that goes with our strategy,” says Lootah.

The majority of these new schemes will be built at Nakheel developments where costly infrastructure works have already been largely completed. “We have to focus on areas where we have maximum benefit,” says Lootah. “Most projects will come in existing communities where we have already spent. We still have a lot of exciting locations in existing communities where we are running out of inventories.”

The largest contract that Nakheel plans to award will be for the scheme to build its AED2.5bn Nakheel Mall on the Palm Jumeirah, for which bidders are currently preparing to submit prices by 5 January.

The five-level, 418,000-square-metre (sq m) retail, dining and entertainment centre will have 200 shops including a 4,200-sq-m supermarket, two anchor department stores, a nine-screen cinema and six medical clinics.

Another deal for the construction of a five-star, 50-storey hotel adjacent to the mall is also expected to be tendered and awarded during 2014.

Nakheel will also launch new projects in 2014. “We are going to announce more schemes in January,” says Lootah. “They will be in prime locations.”

As well as starting construction on new projects in 2014, Nakheel will complete work on the first schemes it began planning in mid 2011, before the rebound in Dubai’s real estate market gathered momentum in late 2012 and early 2013.

For Lootah, these projects are particularly satisfying as they are the first schemes he has been involved in since their inception. “When I started talking about new projects, I was challenged,” he says. “I saw that we are sitting on beneficial assets and it is just a matter of time before there is a transformation in the market.”

The plan now is for new retail, hospitality and residential schemes to insulate Nakheel cash flows from an another extreme crash such as the one it endured in 2009, when customers stopped buying offplan properties. “Nakheel is concentrating on growing its business and building up its cash-generating assets,” says Lootah. “This will come from hospitality, retail, and leasing portfolios; you have to diversify.”

The aim is for the developer to generate AED3bn of revenues each year from these properties in four years’ time. They currently produce about AED1bn of annual turnover.

These more stable revenues streams, together with property sales, should enable Nakheel to meet its financial obligations. “We can handle it without any issues,” says Lootah. “We are shooting for 20 per cent growth and I am confident we can achieve that.”