Tenders for the contract are due to be submitted on 7 April by five bidders, including Geneva-registered Archirodon, the local Overseas AST, Greece’s Athena, China Harbour Engineering Corporation and Belgium’s Six Construct.

The work involves dredging and land reclamation in the project’s offshore component and building the marina’s quay walls. About 50,000 square metres of the 250,000 sq m development is offshore. UK-based Mouchel is the consultant for the infrastructure.

The project will be developed in three phases. US-based HOK was selected as the project’s masterplanner in 2007, and the masterplan has now been finalised.

“We have now frozen the masterplan,” says Azad Nouri, general manager of Ajman Marina. “We have decided on the massing and the size of the buildings so that we can move to the next stage: designing the actual buildings.”

A request for proposals has been issued to architects for the design packages on phase one, and an award is expected by the end of April.

There will be a total of 30 buildings, ranging from nine to 60 floors, together with a shopping mall. Ajman Marina, a joint venture of Saudi-based real estate developer Tanmiyat Investment Group and the government of Ajman, is the client. The government provided the land (MEED 11:05:07).