Architect staffers weren’t the only ones in the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec) to issue a collective sigh of relief on day three of Cityscape 2009. The projected barometer of the capital city’s immunity to the global recession began as a very sleepy affair and, from what Architect learned, had several people worried.
From international consultancies based in the US, UK and Australia to regional players in Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan, almost every person we spoke to on day one and the morning session of day two seemed discouraged by the low footfall. Doubly disappointing was the fact that several of the international exhibitors attended solely to grab hold of the expected momentum of the Abu Dhabi event. In fact, several exhibitors commented on how a poor Abu Dhabi turnout would translate into a positively dismall Cityscape Dubai 2009, which traditionally has dwarfed the capital’s effort.
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In those early hours, the number of empty stands inside Adnec was surpassed only by yawning stand hostesses and the despondent faces of exhibitors asking each other: “Have you ever seen it like this?” One very large and well-known architecture and engineering consultancy offered an insight when a member of its staff explained that a communication from Sheikh Khalifa's office strongly reinforced the exisiting ban on any consumer property sales from the stands of developers. Given the property-related debacle of the past 9-12 months and one or two strategic yet shady adverts last year, His Highness' message was both understandable and prudent.
Developer du jour
Despite the ban on direct sales to the private sector, the industry’s major players still came out in full force. Mubadala and Sorouh claimed the largest and most strategic stands, while the usual suspects, Aldar, Al Qudra and Qatari Diar, also enjoyed very high profiles throughout the exhibition space.
The largest statement however, was made by the Abu Dhabi government entitites. It is possible that the reiteration of the ban on direct sales to consumers was a strategic one, meant to drive disinterested or dissuaded passers-by into the centre of Adnec and the government’s nucleus of activity.
Abu Dhabi’s Departments of Transport (DoT) and Municipal Affairs (DMA) and the Abu Dhabi Municipality (ADM) spent the first few days busily announcing billions of dollars worth of infrastructure projects. Those most memorable were the US $1.34 billion (AED5 billion) Al Salam Street project, which will upgrade the capital’s busiest street to an urban expressway. Alongside Al Salam, ADM showcased its Al Mafraq Bridge and the five million m² Mohammed bin Zayed City.
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good information & realistic analysis