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Thursday, November 09, 2006
Palm Jumeirah, a man-made island off Dubai, is bracing for the arrival of its first residents, even as questions remain about the environmental impact of the mega-projects under way in the Gulf city state.
“These projects are a positive thing for the country” since they have propelled Dubai to world fame, said environmentalist Ibrahim Al Zu’bi.But “they are introducing more people, so it’s more pressure on the natural resources”, he told AFP.A few miles from Palm Jumeirah, shaped like a palm tree and the first of several artificial islands rising off the coast, work is continuing on “The World”, a cluster of some 300 islands looking like a blurred vision of the planet’s nations. “The World,” which is due to be completed end-2008, and three ”Palm” islands are the work of Nakheel, a government-controlled property developer.
Nakheel recently announced that it would hand the keys of 3,900 flats and villas on Palm Jumeirah to their owners by year’s end, some six months behind schedule. The last to take delivery of their properties on the five-by-five-kilometer (three-by-three-mile) island will be running more than a year behind schedule. Prices for the most luxurious villas on the island, whose construction kicked off five years ago, top four million dollars. “By early to mid-December, there will be people living right on the Palm,” a spokesman for Nakheel told AFP, asking not to be named.
The arrival of the first residents on the island will follow a publicity blitz starting November 9 in London, where a huge airship chartered by Nakheel will overfly the city’s landmarks in order “to show that the Palm is the world’s latest landmark”, the spokesman said. Repeats are planned in Paris, Milan and Rome, reflecting the key role played by European investors in the real estate boom in Dubai, which is a member of the United Arab Emirates. A similar publicity stunt will take place in Cairo.
Other projects
Work is meanwhile also continuing on two other palm tree-shaped islands even bigger than Palm Jumeirah. One, Palm Jebel Ali, is jutting out into Gulf waters to the west. The other, Palm Deira—planned to be 18 kilometers (11 miles) long and nine kilometers (five miles) wide but still in its early stages—is emerging to the east. In the case of “The World”, Nakheel’s task is confined to bringing the islands up from the Gulf’s shallow waters, leaving it to buyers to develop them within strict guidelines, chiefly in relation to the height of buildings.
Nakheel says 50 percent of the islands have already been sold, with price tags ranging from 15 to 40 million dollars. But several years after the launch of the island ventures, their consequences on the marine environment remain a matter of debate. “The environment is very important to us,” said Adnan Dawood, a Nakheel spokesman. Before the man-made islands began taking shape, the zone attracted migratory fish, Dawood said. Today “you have fish where there was no fish before, because now they have a habitat,” he said. “Fifteen new species of fish have made this (The World) their habitat... Today you can (even) see dolphins,” he added. Zu’bi, who serves as director of the Emirates Diving Association’s environment department, was sceptical about Dawood’s assertions.
While admitting that the ventures have positive aspects—“new beaches, new diving sites, dolphins” --, he chided developers for lack of communication. “We are open to work with them in a positive way (but) they ignore us,” he said.
“When it comes to the environment, you can’t be as fast as you want. You have to compromise things. Things are going fast here,” Zu’bi said in reference to the breakneck speed at which Dubai is growing. “What happened in Europe in 50 years is happening here in five years,” he said.
courtesy of Khaleej Times online - reported 04/11/2006
“These projects are a positive thing for the country” since they have propelled Dubai to world fame, said environmentalist Ibrahim Al Zu’bi.But “they are introducing more people, so it’s more pressure on the natural resources”, he told AFP.A few miles from Palm Jumeirah, shaped like a palm tree and the first of several artificial islands rising off the coast, work is continuing on “The World”, a cluster of some 300 islands looking like a blurred vision of the planet’s nations. “The World,” which is due to be completed end-2008, and three ”Palm” islands are the work of Nakheel, a government-controlled property developer.
Nakheel recently announced that it would hand the keys of 3,900 flats and villas on Palm Jumeirah to their owners by year’s end, some six months behind schedule. The last to take delivery of their properties on the five-by-five-kilometer (three-by-three-mile) island will be running more than a year behind schedule. Prices for the most luxurious villas on the island, whose construction kicked off five years ago, top four million dollars. “By early to mid-December, there will be people living right on the Palm,” a spokesman for Nakheel told AFP, asking not to be named.
The arrival of the first residents on the island will follow a publicity blitz starting November 9 in London, where a huge airship chartered by Nakheel will overfly the city’s landmarks in order “to show that the Palm is the world’s latest landmark”, the spokesman said. Repeats are planned in Paris, Milan and Rome, reflecting the key role played by European investors in the real estate boom in Dubai, which is a member of the United Arab Emirates. A similar publicity stunt will take place in Cairo.
Other projects
Work is meanwhile also continuing on two other palm tree-shaped islands even bigger than Palm Jumeirah. One, Palm Jebel Ali, is jutting out into Gulf waters to the west. The other, Palm Deira—planned to be 18 kilometers (11 miles) long and nine kilometers (five miles) wide but still in its early stages—is emerging to the east. In the case of “The World”, Nakheel’s task is confined to bringing the islands up from the Gulf’s shallow waters, leaving it to buyers to develop them within strict guidelines, chiefly in relation to the height of buildings.
Nakheel says 50 percent of the islands have already been sold, with price tags ranging from 15 to 40 million dollars. But several years after the launch of the island ventures, their consequences on the marine environment remain a matter of debate. “The environment is very important to us,” said Adnan Dawood, a Nakheel spokesman. Before the man-made islands began taking shape, the zone attracted migratory fish, Dawood said. Today “you have fish where there was no fish before, because now they have a habitat,” he said. “Fifteen new species of fish have made this (The World) their habitat... Today you can (even) see dolphins,” he added. Zu’bi, who serves as director of the Emirates Diving Association’s environment department, was sceptical about Dawood’s assertions.
While admitting that the ventures have positive aspects—“new beaches, new diving sites, dolphins” --, he chided developers for lack of communication. “We are open to work with them in a positive way (but) they ignore us,” he said.
“When it comes to the environment, you can’t be as fast as you want. You have to compromise things. Things are going fast here,” Zu’bi said in reference to the breakneck speed at which Dubai is growing. “What happened in Europe in 50 years is happening here in five years,” he said.
courtesy of Khaleej Times online - reported 04/11/2006
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The handover of the first apartments on Palm Jumeirah represents a significant milestone. Was it a day you thought would never come?
To think that just five years ago, there was nothing here except someone’s vision. To create this man made island, do it in five years and have our first residents on site within that time, is incredible. It hasn’t been done anywhere else in the world. It’s been promised but now we are at the point where it has become a reality.
How will the handover work?
We will have our first residents moving in by the end of the year. We are issuing completion certificates from November for the first phase and they will continue to about June next year. The first residents will be in occupation by December.
The issue of the completion certificate triggers a process where the owner has the ability to come and measure up their apartment, and then there is a 30-day period when investors settle their account, and in most cases pay the last 10%. We hand over the keys and then they are free to go and occupy.
Will everyone move in at once?
We will have to coordinate how the removal companies arrive on site as part of the overall logistics plan. Once people have their keys, they will be able to book the removal vans. We don’t want 500 people arriving on site in one day.
From now until June, we will start handing over the 20 shoreline apartment buildings and all of the fronds apart from frond N (where we have our labour camps) and the four at the tip, because they are not yet developed. The labour camp will be demobilised by the end of May next year.
What have been the main construction challenges you have faced until now?
There have been a number of challenges along the way and the first one of them was vibro compaction. It took a lot of time to get that done across the site.
The other big challenge is the infrastructure – determining the full load for chilled water, sewerage, and electricity. Accommodating the power needs is difficult. You have to have a certain amount of flexibility and spare capacity within all of your services and I think that has been quite a big challenge.
Finally the logistics. How do you manage a working population of 35,000 per day? How do you feed them? How do you provide medical services and a fire service for what, effectively, is a small town?
Nakheel has become very much associated with this project. Now that the first units are being handed over, what is next for the company?
From Nakheel’s point of view, we have delivered the first phase of the Palm Jumeirah and have another three or four years to go on it with the completion of hotels and other apartments that we are building.
Then there is the Village Centre, which will house the major shopping centre at the top of the trunk. Then we have Palm Jebel Ali, where the major reclamation is complete and the vibro compation has commenced. And construction work will begin very shortly. There is also a huge amount of work on Dubai Waterfront and the World. So offshore, we have a lot on our plate.
Then if you go inshore, we have the Lost City, Jebel Ali Village, further stages of International City and Discovery Gardens, and we are commencing the preliminary master planning work on the Arabian Canal, which will be the next ‘iconic’ development.
The creation of 80km of canal through desert will have some major engineering feats to be addressed. We are doing preliminary engineering design and looking at the hydraulics. We are really looking at how to create a canal 80km long and keep it alive? How do you flush the water and create movement so that it doesn’t stay stagnant? It is a very big part of the initial engineering. Once again it will be the biggest in the world.
Do you think there is enough demand in this market to justify the development of Palm Deira?
Dubai is in the middle of a huge catchment area. Within a four-hour flight of the emirate you have a catchment of around two billion people. I think one of the things that will become quite obvious when we open up Palm Jumeirah to its owners, is that people will realise the only option to get a piece of this kind of action will be something like Palm Deira.
Palm Deira is a long-dated project, it will take a long time to reclaim and that is why we are concentrating on the Corniche element. At the moment we have contracts in place for the complete reclamation.
The airship, whose journey is marking the first residents moving into The Palm Jumeirah, circled over some of history's greatest monuments including the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Vatican, the Pantheon and the monument of Vittorio Emanuele. Crowds of people watched from the streets of the city as The Spirit of Dubai made an exclusive trip around the skies of Rome.
Manal Shaheen, Director of Marketing, Sales and Customer Service for Nakheel was present on the airship's first flight over the historic centre and at the time said, "Today has truly been a remarkable day for all on board and we couldn't have asked for more perfect conditions. The views of Rome's ancient monuments across the crisp cloudless skies were absolutely breathtaking. With the Colosseum being an icon that symbolizes one of history's greatest civilisations, it was the perfect setting to mark such a pivotal moment in our journey of celebrating the creation of a new landmark and commemorating some of the great landmarks of the world."
The Spirit of Dubai's voyage across Europe and North Africa began in early November in London and has already taken in such famous sights as Big Ben, Stonehenge, the Eiffel Tower, the Palace of Versailles, Monte Carlo and the Leaning Tower of Pisa, attracting widespread media coverage and attention in each city it has passed through.
Manal Shaheen added, "It has been a challenging journey but we are now halfway through and looking forward to bringing the airship to its final destination, The Palm Jumeirah. Having seen London, Paris and Rome from onboard The Spirit of Dubai, I know that this is the best way to appreciate the size and scale of The Palm and Nakheel's other projects, such as The World. In every city we have visited, we have received great interest from media and residents alike and this has been a unique way of communicating the creation of The Palm Jumeirah and its role in the continuing development of our great city".
The Spirit of Dubai's next destination is Athens, before it flies across the Mediterranean and down to the Great Pyramids in Egypt and onwards to Dubai where it will arrive at The Palm Jumeirah in January.