Nakheel's unfinished projects

David Ingham , March 29th, 2010

Last week’s news that US $8 billion will be pumped into Nakheel to help it continue funding work was certainly welcome. One thing is certain though; the developer is spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing which projects to prioritise. Here, Construction Week takes a look at some of Nakheel’s unfinished projects.

Trump Tower
The latest in a string of branded developments in Dubai, the prospects for this one appeared to be quite good. Bearing the name of property tycoon Donald Trump, it would have been a 62-storey tower with 300 hotel rooms and 360 apartments.

BK Gulf, Atkins, a Habtoor Engineering Enterprises and Murray & Roberts JV and Bovis Lend Lease were all linked with the project, which was due to go into construction as the financial crisis hit.

The project was officially put on hold in May 2009. In October 2009, Donald Trump Junior, son of the real estate tycoon, told Construction Week that work on the project could recommence in the next two years. The following day, Nakheel told CW that it had “nothing new to say about Trump Tower.”

Next: The World

The World
After building a massive reclaimed island in the shape of a palm tree, Nakheel’s announcement of a series of reclaimed islands in the shape of the world’s continents seemed quite normal. Considerable progress was made on the reclamation work before the financial crisis hit and as late as last June, Nakheel said that work was continuing.

Recent speculation about the project has focused on whether or not the reclaimed islands are sinking due to a lack of compacting work. Nakheel says a firm ‘no’, a view supported by independent bloggers.

Nakheel claims that 70% of the islands have been purchased by third party developers. The first one to start work is Kleindienst, which recently appointed Foundation Construction Group Limited (FCG) to do soil improvement work on The Heart of Europe, a cluster of six islands. It says it is currently reviewing bids for the infrastructure and civil work contracts on Germany Island and the newly launched Monte Carlo Island.

Next: Nakheel Tower

Nakheel Tower
Rumours that Nakheel wanted to build another ‘world’s tallest tower’ had been around for years, but Nakheel Tower wasn’t formally announced until Cityscape 2008 ― just as the financial crisis was really beginning to bite.

The tower, when built, would stand around one kilometre and 200 storeys tall, and would form the centrepiece of a 2.7 million m² marina development called Nakheel Harbour and Tower near to Ibn Battuta Mall. The project was formally put on hold for 12 months in January 2009. In June 2009, it was put on hold for another twelve months.

Next: Palm Deira

Palm Deira
After property on the original Palm sold out quickly and shot up in value, more Palms were probably inevitable.

While Palm Jebel Ali was designed to outdo the original Jumeirah Palm in terms of size, Palm Deira was something else altogether. It was designed to cover 42.7km², extend 12.5km into the sea and be 7 km wide.

It would have featured 75 km of beachfront and 185 km of waterfront, with 43 marinas consisting of 8142 berths. Three bridges, with 12 lanes each, would provide access to the island.

Reclamation work on the island was due to finish in 2012, but is currently on hold.

Next: Al Furjan

Al Furjan
Al Furjan was planned as a 4000-unit villa development next to Discovery Gardens at the end of Emirates Road. Nakheel launched the project in response to what it felt was a shortage of affordable villas and townhouses in Dubai.

Arabtec won the US $816 million contract to build phase one, 1500 units, in June 2008. Khansaheb Civil Engineering had earlier won a US $272 million (AED1 billion) contract to develop the infrastructure for phase one.

In late 2009, Nakheel said it was confident of delivering phase one of Al Furjan by the end of 2010.

However, contractor Arabtec downed tools in January this year over unpaid bills, having completed structural work on around 500 units.

Al Furjan is not the only affordable villa project undertaken by Nakheel. Two adjacent projects, Jumeirah Village and Jumeirah Park, offered affordable townhouses and villas and are at differing stages of development.

Next: Dubai Waterfront

Dubai Waterfront
Dubai Waterfront was the reclamation project to top all reclamation projects. It would have covered a total of 1.4 billion ft², added 70km of coastline to Dubai and been around twice the size of Hong Kong.

In addition to six reclaimed islands, it included an inland component and a canal called the Arabian Cove. At one point in 2008, Nakheel said it was reclaiming land at a rate fast enough to fill London's Wembley Stadium each month.

As with the Palm, Nakheel planned to build some of its own residential projects and act as a masterplanner, overseeing the activities of third party developers. Individual components of the project included Madinat Al Arab, Dubai Promenade, Canal District and Waterfront City.