Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Nakheel Tower work halted for year

DUBAI // Construction work on the Nakheel Tower – a building that would soar more than 1km high to be the world’s tallest when completed – has been stopped for a year.

“Further work on the foundations of Nakheel Harbour and Tower will commence in 12 months,” said a Nakheel spokesman. “The foundation works are likely to take approximately three years to complete.”

A senior project manager said several employees working on the Dubai project had been laid off because “work has stopped until further notice”.

The stalling of the tower is the latest in a string of delays on Nakheel’s most prominent projects as a result of the slowdown in the property market.

Other developments that have been affected include the Trump International Hotel and Tower, Frond N villas, and Gateway Towers, as well as parts of the Waterfront and Palm Deira.

In late November, the company laid off 500 employees, about 15 per cent of its labour force, “in light of the current global market conditions”.

Developers across the UAE have said they were reviewing their projects and retrenching staff because of the sharp drop in sales. Residential property prices dipped 8 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, according to Colliers International. Ian Albert, the consultancy’s regional director, said “tighter liquidity, selective lending and growing negative sentiment are all bringing about these changes”.

Dubai was not the only affected emirate. Aldar Laing O’Rourke, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi’s largest developer and a British construction company, announced last week it was cutting between 200 and 250 of its 1,900 professional employees because of the changed economic environment.

Under Nakheel’s plan, which was launched with a flashy ceremony at Cityscape Dubai in October, the multibillion-dirham tower would be the centrepiece of a 270-hectare marina development called Nakheel Harbour and Tower near Ibn Battuta Mall and the Arabian Canal.

The tower would have 200 floors and 150 lifts. It would have been surrounded by as many as 40 other buildings, ranging from 20 to 90 floors. The area would be home to 55,000 people and have enough offices for 45,000 people.

Nakheel officials said at the launching ceremony that the entire Nakheel Harbour and Tower project would take 10 years to complete in phases and require 30,000 labourers.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Nakheel Harbour & Tower Photos December 19th 2008

Nakheel Harbour & Tower Photos December 19th 2008 photo update.. Foundation work conintues at a fast pace, but dont get excited yet.. the foundations wont be completed until late 2010.







Friday, December 19, 2008

Portland masterplans retail space in 1km-tall Dubai tower

Portland Design is masterplanning the 70 000m2 retail area in Dubai's proposed 1km-tall Nakheel Tower (concept image pictured).

Property developer Nakheel, which is also responsible for Dubai's Palm Islands project, appointed the consultancy in July, six months after Portland approached the developer about the project.

Portland reports that in the build-up to the tower's completion in 2012, Nakheel will be seeking lighting and wayfinding designers, among other design specialists.



'We intend to compete for the wayfinding contract when that comes along', says Portland general manager, United Arab Emirates, Stephen Walsh, wondering at the 'challenge of lighting a 1km-high building'.

The tower is being designed by architect Woods Bagot, but the plan details remain a mystery, apparently to prevent other developers beating the tower's record-breaking scale.

Nevertheless, Portland reveals that the retail area will cover several levels in the base of the tower, the foundations for which are now complete. The building will feature several independent structures joining to create one.

Portland aims to differentiate the mall from the dozens of huge shopping centres in Dubai.

'We want to help create a neighbourhood for the wider community, and fully integrate landscaping and the public realm into the retail design. We also have to bear in mind, of course, that it will be a major tourist attraction,' says the group's creative head of developments, Markham Darbyshire.

Walsh would not reveal Portland's conclusions about the shape and size of the retail offer, but he describes the group's role on the project as 'looking at who the customers are, how much space can be supported by the customer base, how the space should be distributed across the site and how it should be allocated'.

Most of the mall's customers will be drawn from the new Nakheel Harbour development, which will include more than 19 000 residential apartments.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Nakheel Harbour and Tower from Google Earth

Nakheel Harbour and Tower from Google Earth (updated Dubai version):

the circle is 130 m in diameter... more than 13,000 sqm!


Sunday, December 14, 2008

Nakheel receives bids for Tall Tower

Published: 12 December 2008 12:48 GMT Author: Colin Foreman More by this Author Last Updated: 12 December 2008 12:48

Three groups submit proposals for 10-year project to build AED30bn landmark skyscraper in Dubai.

Local developer Nakheel has received proposals from three groups for the contract to build the tower at the AED140bn ($38bn) Nakheel Harbour and Tower development in Dubai.

The bidders are a joint venture of the local/Australian Al-Habtoor Leighton, South Africa's Murray & Roberts Contractors (Middle East) and Japan's Takenaka Corporation; the UK's Laing O'Rourke in joint venture with Japan's Taisei Corporation; and South Korea's Samsung Corporation (MEED 18:11:08).

Samsung is also part of a joint venture that is building the Burj Dubai, along with the local/Belgian Bel Hasa Six Construct and the local Arabtec Construction.

The AED30bn Nakheel tower will be developed over 10 years. The client plans to shortlist two groups by the end of the year and select one to provide pre-construction services by early 2009. The pre-construction period is expected to last at least one year. Enabling works on the development, which are scheduled to be completed in October 2010, are being executed by France's Soletanche Bachy. Work on the tower's superstructure is expected to follow shortly after.

In June, sources close to the project said the tower had been designed to be 1.4 kilometres tall. However, Nakheel has only confirmed that it will be more than 1km high. Even so, once finished, it will be taller than the Burj Dubai, which is expected to be about 820 metres high when completed in 2009.

The Nakheel tower was originally called the Pinnacle and was to be located on the Palm Jumeirah, before becoming part of the Dubai Waterfront scheme, when it was renamed Al-Burj. It is now known as the Tall Tower.

The consultancy team for the tower includes UK-based WSP, US-based Leslie E Robertson Associates and Australia's Woods Bagot.

The development will be built alongside the proposed Arabian Canal next to Ibn Battuta Mall and Jumeirah islands.

It will cover an area of 2.7 square kilometres and will be home to more than 55,000 people. The development will also include 250,000 sq m of hotel and hospitality space, and 100,000 sq m of retail space.

The scheme was launched in October 2008 but, given the global economic climate, doubts soon surfaced over whether it would move ahead. Nakheel has already begun to delay work on some of its other projects, such as Palm Deira and Dubai Waterfront, Gateway Towers and Trump International Hotel and Tower.

However, the developer's decision to move ahead with the Tall Tower is the latest sign that some major schemes will proceed.

The Al-Habtoor/Murray & Roberts/Takaneka joint venture was recently awarded the AED4.9bn ($1.3bn) contract to build Concourse 3 at Dubai International airport (MEED 8:12:08).