Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC) has announced the sale of a 91,000-square-metre land plot on Saadiyat Island to Bin Otaiba Investment Group for the development of a luxury resort.

The hotel, scheduled to open on the Saadiyat Beach District in 2015, will comprise 366 rooms and luxury beach villas, restaurants, a spa, a gymnasium, conference facilities, and a sand-bottom swimming pool.

Bin Otaiba Investment Group said it is currently in the final stage of appointing an operator for the hotel.

Activity is picking up on projects on Saadiyat Island. Last week, TDIC invited contractors to prequalify for the main contract to build the Guggenheim museum on the island. The deadline for submissions of prequalification documents is 8 September.

In July, TDIC invited companies to prequalify for museum infrastructure work on the island’s Cultural District. The works will include the construction of roads, utilities, and general infrastructure serving the museums that are being built on the island. TDIC earlier invited contractors to prequalify for a contract to tunnel serving the Cultural District.

Also in July, construction work started on the Cranleigh Abu Dhabi school, which is expected to open in 2014. The school’s piling and early construction works were awarded to the local NSCC. Work on the school’s superstructure is expected to start in the fourth quarter of this year. The architect is UK-based Godwin Austen Johnson Architects.

In January, TDIC awarded the main construction contract to build the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum on Saadiyat Island to a joint venture of the local Arabtec, Spain’s Constructora San Jose and Oger Abu Dhabi.