QATAR:

Museum of Islamic Arts: The Museum of Islamic Arts, which is to be completed by 2006, will be a notable landmark for the city of Doha. It will display the Qatar National Collection of Islamic Art – a world class collection of ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, woodwork, glass and other items made in countries all over the Islamic World from medieval Spain to Central Asia and India. The museum will also serve as an educational institution offering support to local schools and providing facilities for research scholars from within Qatar and from overseas.

Dubai Towers – Doha: This will be a landmark project in Doha. The landmark mixed-use development will be an iconic addition to the skyline of Qatar’s capital rising up to 80 storeys. It will offer high-end retail, state-of-the-art offices, a five-star hotel as well as top quality apartments. Covering a total of 2.35 million square feet, the development is due for completion in 2007. The hotel and furnished apartments to be operated by the Dubai based Jumeirah Hospitality and will cater mainly to high-end business travellers.

Villaggio Mall: Located in Doha's Al Azizya district and sited within a new sports complex surrounding Khalifa Stadium, the Le Villaggio development will feature a total built up area of 145,000 square meters. Once completed, it will be Qatar's largest shopping center and will offer a comprehensive, yet focused mix of major retail outlets, services and entertainment activities. These will include bowling, a fun park, a roller coaster, ice rink, a six-theater cinema, fast food outlets and restaurant areas, a hotel and a hypermarket. These will all be set within and around an evocative coliseum and each of the elements will be linked together by water features, such as an indoor canal and a lake.

The Pearl - Qatar: This is a US $2.5 billion man-made island covering 985 acres (400 hectares) of reclaimed land offshore the Arabian Peninsula state of Qatar - the Arab world's wealthiest per capita country. The Pearl-Qatar is the country's first international real estate venture, its largest real estate development and the first to offer international investors freehold and residential rights.

It is being built offshore eastern Qatar, immediately east of the West Bay shoreline. The Pearl-Qatar will be approximately 20 km north of the central business district of the Qatari capital, Doha. The island will be just 20 km from Doha International Airport in the south. The island has been positioned with the greatest respect for the marine environment and topography.

It is a four-phase mixed-use development with a target completion date of 2009 comprising 10 distinct, themed districts to be developed over five years housing beachfront villas, elegant town homes, luxury apartments, exclusive penthouses, 5 star hotels, marinas, schools, mosques, community centers, parks, entertainment, recreational facilities as well as upscale retail and restaurant offerings. When fully developed the island will house around 11,000 luxury villas, town homes, penthouses and apartments which will, in total, be home to more than 35,000 residents. It will be a destination in its own right - a lavish, secure and exclusive island retreat with a Riviera-style community.

Current plans are for three deluxe hotels with a total room capacity of 800. In total there will be three marinas with mooring for 700 boats. Extensive private and public moorage is planned and the island will have canals, lakes and interior navigable coves. The island will host a yacht club of world-class standing to cater to the international, regional and local yachting community.

Lusail: The new world leading extension to Doha, the 32 square km city of Lusail, just north of the Ritz Carlton on the coast, is a meticulously planned urban development to be the ultimate living experience for around 200,000 people.
Developed by Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company, Lusail will include a number of new features such as a dedicated family entertainment district, providing both day and night time attractions for residents and tourists alike. This project is in its final master plan.

DUBAI

The Palm: The ambitious project aims to create two of the largest man-made islands in the world (500 hectares each) in the shape of date palm trees and estimated to cost $650 million. The first of the two islands has been reclaimed from the sea and is scheduled for completion by 2005.

The Palm involves the creation of the islands known as The Palm, Jumeirah and The Palm, Jebel Ali. The project will increase Dubai’s shoreline by a total of 120 kilometres. Between the two islands there will be over 60 luxury hotels, 5,000 exclusive residential beachside villas, 5000 shoreline apartments, marinas, water theme parks, shopping malls, sports facilities and health spas.

Hydropolis: Dubai will have the world’s first underwater hotel in three years time, offering a newer experience of hospitality to the guests from across the world. The Hydropolis Hotel will entertain guests with underwater views, a half-submerged concert hall, and snorkeling. The Hydropolis Hotel will come up near the Palm Island resort.

It will be shaped like a giant jellyfish and with its own artificial clouds to shield it from the sun. Joachim Hauser, a German architect and investor, is behind the project. Work on the $500 million facility would finish in 2006.

Dubai Marina: The world’s first truly intelligent city is a reality now, with three towers at the Dubai Marina ready and being occupied by its proud owners. Called Dubai Marina, the residential community of 80,000 to 100,000 people is planned to come up in phases at cost of more than US$4 billion.

The Phase One consists of 1,026 deluxe waterfront apartments, 64 luxury villas and up to 40 retail outlets. In keeping with its unique waterfront theme, the Marina, a stunning 3.5-km-long waterway and an 11 km waterfront, will provide a boating lifestyle featuring water taxis, sunset cruises and dinner cruises.

Burj Dubai: The world's tallest tower on Sheikh Zayed Road will combine residential, commercial, hotel, entertainment and leisure outlets with open green spaces, an 'old town' and one of the world's largest shopping malls.

Scheduled for completion by 2007, the project promises to create a new architectural landmark - a city within a city in Dubai. Emaar Properties, a $7.7 billion Public Joint Stock Company, is developing this project. Its other projects include Arabian Ranches, Gazelle, Emirates Hills, The Views, The Meadows, The Springs, The Lakes, Hattan Homes, The Greens, Emaar Towers and Residences at Burj Dubai.

Dubailand: One of the biggest construction projects in the world, the AED18 billion the project is a mixed-use theme park and has already been billed as the Middle East answer to Disneyland in Florida.

To be built on two billion square feet of land behind the Emirates Road, the theme park consists of 45 separate projects and 200 sub-projects, from a space exploration exhibition to full-size dinosaur enclosure. Surrounded by desert, the park will have an artificial rain forest under an enormous glass dome and a ski slope with snow created by machine.

The multi-phase, multi-dimensional project is expected to contribute enormously to the growth of the emirate’s $1.9 billion tourism industry. The project has been designed to position Dubai as an ultimate destination for family leisure and entertainment, sustain GDP growth and increase in tourist volume, their spending and length of stay.

Developing an iconic tourist attraction is the key to winning a permanent place on the global tourism map, but future success is dependent on achieving the right mix of local and international leisure trends.

Dubailand expectations are of generating upwards of 200,000 visitors a day for Dubai. There will be the world’s greatest concentration of theme parks, museums, sports facilities and other leisure attractions on a site of three billion square feet.

Dubailand captured the imagination of developers and architects across the globe. A total of US$9 billion is the estimated investment in Dubailand, envisaged as the ‘ultimate fun and leisure destination in the Middle East’.

Development will take between 10 and 15 years, with first phase due to be completed in 2007, and the destination will be twice the size of Disneyland with around 55 hotels and resorts offering up to 50,000 new rooms, creating the world’s largest visitor destination.

Dubai Festival City: The phased work on the 1600-acre development along four kilometers of Dubai’s picturesque Creek is progressing on schedule to offer 70 million square feet of mixed-use space on its completion in September 2006. The Dubai Festival City offers extensive retail offerings, including its 1.8 million square foot Festival Centre, the waterfront retail, entertainment and hospitality destination.

Dubai Maritime City: The Dubai Maritime City is another ambitious multi-million dirham project taken up by the Dubai government to further consolidate its status as the regional hub.

The world’s largest maritime development will be located on a man-made peninsula measuring 25 million square feet.

Dredging has already begun to create this peninsula, which will be located between Dubai’s Port Rashid and Dubai Dry Docks and connected to the mainland by a causeway.

The first development of its kind, Dubai Maritime City will offer world-class facilities to maritime businesses. It will be the hub for six large and diverse sectors: marine marketing, management, services, recreation, education, ship design and manufacture.

Each of the six targeted sectors is diverse in its own right. Dubai Maritime City has the potential to host an array of shipping services including classifiers, onshore and offshore caterers and suppliers.

Marine research & education will receive a huge boost in the form of a Marine Academy within Dubai Maritime City. An Oceanographic Research Centre and Naval history museum further add educational value to this unique development.

Dubai Waterfront: Under the direction of HH General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Minister of Defense, Nakheel announced the launch of the unparalleled Dubai Waterfront, an 81 million square metre beachfront mixed use destination which encompasses over 250 best of breed master planned communities and offerings.

Destined to become an international landmark, Dubai Waterfront is the world’s largest waterfront offering, and is located 35 km south west of Dubai, bordering Abu Dhabi, on the last remaining coastal waterfront of the Emirate.

Considered the New Gateway of Dubai, Dubai Waterfront has been carefully crafted and developed by an international consortium of the world’s best architects, planners and urban developers assembled by Nakheel in 2004, whose goal was to create a destination never before seen in Dubai, or the world.

Dubai Waterfront forms the first phase of a larger effort, the Arabian Canal, a 75 km development envisioned by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed. The first phase of Dubai Waterfront will focus on Madinat Al Arab, a thriving urban downtown metropolis, including Al Burj, one of the world’s tallest buildings.

Nakheel has created Dubai Waterfront Company, and will be the majority owner, offering 49 per cent to select investors. The first phase of Madinat Al Arab was sold out for approximately AED13 billion within just five days of its unveiling to a select invited group of private property and investment institutions.

This broke all the previous sales records in the UAE's booming property market. Adjoining Palm Jebel Ali, the project is the last remaining natural waterfront in the emirate and is set to create a quality of sophisticated lifestyle unmatched in the world.

The Madinat Al Arab will be anchored by Al Burj — one of the world's tallest buildings — making it a symbol of Dubai's meteoric rise and embodies the vision and magnitude of the project.

The downtown will encompass all the key components of the master plan comprising multipurpose commercial, residential, resort and amenity zones. A unique aspect of the project is its strategic planning, where all the infrastructural aspects and access have been chalked out in the design stage itself.

The development is set to become a benchmark for integrated development and offers unmatched infrastructure and direct access to Sheikh Zayed Road, the Jebel Ali Free Zone and upcoming Jebel Ali Airport and has also taken into account the planned metro link-up, thus becoming one of Dubai's unique new master-planned communities.

Salient features of the project are: 600 km of roads will be created which is further than the distance of Dubai to Bahrain (481km); 370 km of internal canals/waterways will be developed, which nine times the length of the canal network in Venice and five times the length of the canal network in Amsterdam; 900,000,000 square miles of excavation is planned, which is the equivalent to 350 Great Pyramids, or fifteen times the volume excavated for the construction of the original Suez Canal;

BAHRAIN:

Bahrain Financial Harbour: A USD 1.3 billion integrated master-planned development, the Bahrain Financial Harbour will be home to the entire value chain in the financial services sector.
The mission of the project is to reinforce Bahrain’s unsurpassed position as the international financial centre of the Middle East by evolving a highly focused, committed and advanced financial environment.

Key Features: Waterfront development designed for commercial, residential and leisure purposes. The BFH will include 30 individual development units, Financial Centre, up-market residences, seafront walkways, shopping boulevards, a marina, water pathways, water taxis, coffee shops and dining facilities. The development will be constructed in phases, with the final project (Residential North) being completed by mid 2009.