Casamia Star FZE boss goes off the radar

A map of the Marmooka project in Ajman.

Casamia Star FZE, developer of the troubled Frankfurt Residences project, is headed up by former Casamia Star Gesamtplanung managing director Israr Yousaf, Construction Week has learned.

The developer has failed to respond to worried overseas investors, around 20 of whom descended on the offices of real estate brokerage firm Casamia Star LLC on Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road on Tuesday.

The investors were concerned over the failure of the project’s developer to update them on the status of the yet-to-be-built 25-storey tower in Ajman’s Marmooka City, and the whereabouts of their money.

But they were told the project was in fact being developed by a separate firm – Casamia Star FZE – which until recently had operated alongside Casamia Star LLC under the banner of Germany-based Casamia Star Gesamtplanung.

“Casamia Star FZE is [based] in Ajman,” a spokesperson for Casamia Star LLC told Construction Week this morning.

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“The director’s name is Israr Yousaf, but we don’t know where he is now.”

Yousaf was listed as managing director of Casamia Star Gesamtplanung in the firm’s promotional releases up until August last year.

The spokesperson also claimed that Casamia Star LLC did not know how to contact Casamia Star FZE, despite them having worked together as one firm until earlier this year.

Casamia Star LLC announced it was to “focus on its real estate brokerage business” just a fortnight ago – the first indication of an effort to put space between itself and property development.

“We have now decided to focus on [the] real estate brokerage business,” Casamia Star Gesamtplanung CEO Hendrik Hommel said in a statement, claiming it offered opportunities in a “changed global economic and regional real estate landscape.”
 
Casamia Star LLC also announced a management reshuffle only last month. Khaled Kadik was appointed to the role of managing director previously occupied by Yousaf.

But Kadic was unavailable to comment on the matter this morning. Hommel was also not taking calls at his Frankfurt office where he is currently based.

In February, the Ajman government announced it had taken control of the Marmooka City development from Marmooka Capital for $217.8 million (AED800 million) in a bid to restore investor confidence in the project in the midst of the financial crisis.

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