Nakheel gets good response to Deira Islands hotel plots' sales

Nakheel has sold half of the small plots for hotel and hotel apartments at its Deira Islands project, chairman Ali Rashid Lootah has told Khaleej Times.

The Dubai developer released the first phase of hotel plots at Dubai’s new waterfront wonder on March 30. Nakheel re-launched its Palm Deira project on October 8, 2013 at Cityscape Global in Dubai as Deira Islands, comprising four linked islands which will include resorts, apartments and shops as well as 40km of coastline.

The chairman didn’t provide an exact number of plots sold on the Deira Islands project, but said the response had been very good.

Nakheel released its first phase of plots — ranging from 50,000 to 670,000sqft — for hotel and resort development on two of the four islands that make up the project. Ninty-four first phase plots were made available, with special payment plans for investors in hotel and resort projects.

The two islands will ultimately add over 23,000 hotel keys and 31,000 apartment keys to Dubai’s hospitality and residential landscape.

There is a need for three- and four-star waterfront hotels and Nakheel is providing the opportunity, according to the chairman.

Deira Islands, which will add 40km, including 21km of beachfront to Dubai’s coastline, will contribute significantly to the government of Dubai’s tourism vision, which aims to bring 20 million visitors a year to the emirate by 2020. It is one of a number of Nakheel projects underway in the run-up to Expo 2020, which is expected to attract more than 25 million people.

Specifically mentioning about a night market at the Deira project, Lootah said Nakheel itself is developing a significant amount of the 4.5-million-sqm south island, creating a unique creek side destination, easily accessible from the mainland by road bridges and abras. The island’s host of attractions will include a large shopping mall; an Arabic souk-style night market, a 250-room hotel, an amphitheatre for 30,000 people and a marina that can accommodate large yachts.

All four Deira Islands will feature hotels, resorts and residential, commercial and retail units. Nakheel will master plan and complete infrastructure work ready for third party development on each island. The developer also plans to build five hotels of its own at Deira Islands.

Last April, Nakheel had awarded contracts worth over Dh47 million for design and supervision services on Deira Islands including the Night Market and Board Walk on the project.

Palm Jebel Ali

Last week, Lootah ruled out any immediate plan to restart work on its Palm Jebel Ali project.

He confirmed that the project remained on hold.

“We don’t have any plans to resume the project in the near future. We have to monitor the market and we will go along with the market demand,” he told reporters at a news conference, which was held to announce that the property developer’s plan to repay its entire bank debt of Dh7.9 billion four years early to focus on building hospitality and retail projects.

Palm Jebel Ali was one of the three iconic palm projects launched by Nakheel prior to the crash. It was designed to be 50 per cent larger than Palm Jumeirah, which is a very successful project. abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com

Island fun

Nakheel’s Deira Islands project boasts:

An additional 40km of coastline to Dubai, including 21km of beachfront

Over 23,000 hotel keys

More than 31,000 apartment keys

Plots ranging from 50,000 to 670,000sqft

A large shopping mall, an Arabic souk-style night market, a 250-room hotel an ampitheatre for 30,000 people and a marina that can accomodate large yachts

Deira Islands will contribute significantly to Dubai’s tourism vision.