Local developer Rak Properties has awarded contracts totalling AED400m ($109m) to three local contractors for the construction of residential district at the Mina al-Arab development in the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah.

The selected contractors, DTC, Al-Tameer, and AAA Contracting, will build 20 residential blocks with 808 apartments with a total built-up area of 151,000 square metres in the lagoon area of Mina al-Arab.

Rak Properties wants to complete the buildings during the second half of 2011.

Rak Properties has also invited contractors to bid by 6 January for the estimated AED375m contract to build the Intercontinental Hotel at Mina al-Arab.

The successful bidder will build a 300-room low-rise hotel alongside Mina al-Arab’s 13-kilometre-long beach. The hotel includes meeting rooms and business centres together with restaurants, bars and a swimming pool.

The overall AED20bn ($5.4bn) Mina al-Arab project is the largest ongoing real estate project in the Northern Emirates. It involves the construction of more than 600 villas, as well as apartment buildings, hotels and other urban amenities on the Gulf coast to the south of Ras al-Khaimah city (MEED 17:12:09).