The Dubai-based developer awarded the AED6bn ($1.6bn) contract in September last year to the joint venture of the local Al-Habtoor Engineering, South Africa’s Murray & Roberts and Saudi Arabia-based Al-Rahji Contracting.

The project is located on Reem island and involves building six towers between the sea and the Central Park area of the Shams Abu Dhabi development. The main buildings are a 74-floor, 300-metre-tall office tower in the commercial area, a 21-floor hotel and apartment tower, two 50-floor residential towers and two 30-floor residential towers.

The total built-up area would have been 915,000 square metres (MEED 1:9:08).

The US' Hill International is the project manager and France's Bureau Veritas is construction manager.

Tameer declined to comment.

The project is not the first to be put on hold by Tameer. In December 2008, the developer put its 125-storey Anara tower project in Dubai on hold. The building was to have been used as Tameer's headquarters, and the developer had intended to use the development's design as a blueprint to build tower developments in all major cities in the Gulf (MEED 21:12:08).

The tower was to be built on the site of the recently demolished Palm Hotel and the still existing Hard Rock Hotel on Sheikh Zayed road. The project involved the construction of a mixed-use tower, with serviced apartments, penthouses and a small retail area, in addition to the Tameer office space.