Sharjah project open to non-Arabs

Sharjah oasis Real Estate Development on Wednesday officially launched the Dh20 billion Sharjah Waterfront City. Top executives said that 100 freehold residential units would be available to non-Arab nationals.
The mega project was earlier known as 'Nujoom Islands'. "We restructured and rebranded the project," Hayssam El Masri, president of Sharjah Oasis Real Estate, said at a Press conference on the second day of Cityscape Global 2015 in Dubai.
El Masri said: "We have launched Sharjah Waterfront City keeping in line with Sharjah's development plans to attract 10 million visitors by 2021. These plans will increase demand for residential and commercial units as well as hotels, especially in prime locations that offer all modern facilities. Sharjah Waterfront City will be able to match the demands and provide the desired quality of living."
The project will have 200 residential and commercial towers, 95 apartment buildings, a hotel and a hotel apartment tower. It will also have up to 1,500 waterfront villas.
It will be developed in phases, with the first phase slated to be ready by Q3 2018 and the second phase by Q4 2016. Construction of the first phase is scheduled to begin by the end of this year.
The first two phases of the project would cost around Dh9.3 billion each. "We have very attractive pricing right now," he added.
The developer has also signed a management contract with Shaza Hotels, an affiliate of Kempinski, to build a 300-key hotel and 350 serviced apartments. The project will also have another 200-key Dusit hotel and another 200 serviced apartments.
The construction contract is under bidding process and will be awarded by December 2015. The infrastructure contract has already been awarded.
Shaikh Abdullah Shkara, chairman of Al Hanoo Real Estate Company, was also present. The firm is investor-partner in the project.
Abdullah Shkara said: "We believe this project will be the heartbeat of the city's tourism 2021 vision."
Sharjah Oasis Real Estate also announced its partnership with Invest Bank for funding the project. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between the two parties to fund the project's first phase.
"Currently, we are funding the first phase of the project which is expected to be completed by 2016. We are also considering the possibility of financing the remaining phases. We may also finance the Sharjah Waterfront City end-users, subject to the bank's terms and conditions," said Sami Rashid Farahat, general manager of Invest Bank.
- abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com