Turkish Delight

The five star luxury hotel and resort is scheduled to open on January 1, 2012, a six month deadline for the contractor.

The Palm Jumeirah is an architectural wonder and, fittingly, it is home to many iconic luxury hotels.

From the Atlantis Palm that dominates its skyline, to the Fairmont Palm Hotel and the Taj Exotica Hotel and Resort, it is covered with high-quality, highcost playgrounds for the rich and famous.

Tucked away at the very end of the Palm’s crescent however, is a hotel that is set to take on these giants of the hospitality world. Part of the Turkish luxury hotel group, the Rixos Palm Jumeirah is a 234 room five star property that is home to a traditional Turkish ‘hammam’ or bath, a luxury spa, four restaurants, meeting rooms and a private beach.

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The launch of this hotel is a statement of intent for the Turkish hospitality group, who
intend to use it as a platform to break into the UAE market and then into the wider GCC region as a whole.

The mechanical, electrical and plumbing work for this luxurious Rixos Palm Jumeirah
is being carried out by the Turkish MEP giant, AE Arma-Elektropanç.

After the sup, just over six months ago, the contractor was given the near impossible task of completing the project by January 1, 2012, in line with the main contractor, Sembol Construction Company’s scheduled completion date.

However, Burak Kizilhan, the business development manager for the contractor, says
that despite the extremely short time frame, his team pulled together and managed to get
the job done on time, with about 98% of the MEP work completed by December.

“I keep dropping emails saying I’m going to get it open for January 1 and I’m confident
that we’re going to do so,” he asserts. “All our projects have always made deadline and
we’ll make deadline for this one as well,” adds Kizilhan bullishly.

“We are confident of doing so; we’re working so hard, seven days a week, with all the
materials on site and around 800 labourers.”

Normally for a project of this size, no more than 250 to 300 labourers would be required
to complete it, provided the time-frame given would accommodate the work that needed to
be done, says Mokhles Islam, a mechanical coordinator for AE Arma-Elektropanç , and a
supervisor on the project.

That was not an option for this project, Kizilhan says, as AE Arma-Elektropanç was
brought in at a very advanced stage of development to complete the project.

“Usually you can handle this kind of project with 300 to 250 skilled people and manual
labour, but we were in a situation where we assigned around 800 people (to get the job
done). This included the required supervision teams and so on, but we managed to
increase our productivity to three times the normal amount,” Islam explains.

Although the situation wasn’t ideal, Kizilhan says that the MEP contractor’s specialist
experience in working on luxury hotels, highend shopping malls and high-rise accommodation came in handy for the project.

“All the projects we have completed are five star and we’ve even done one seven star
one in Turkey. (Luxury hotels) and high-rise buildings are our hallmarks.”

The project footprint, which neighbours Sheikh Mohammad Al Maktoum’s Palace and Sofouh Road, has an indoor area covering only 30% of the total available land. The remaining 70% is dedicated towards gardens and a beach promenade area.