Cityscape 2007 highlights

It's already the biggest property show in the world, and this year's exhibition got even bigger.

Cityscape 2007 has smashed all previous attendance records, with 45,000 participants from 120 countries across three days locked in real estate chat at Dubai's own International Convention and Exhibition Centre. Thousands of regional and international investors, property developers, governmental and development authorities, leading architects, designers, consultants and industry professionals from around the globe witnessed the unveiling of some of the world's most spectacular residential and commercial property projects over 72 hours.

Of course the big-dollar deals took all the glory. Everyone was expecting one of the big three Dubai government-backed property giants to announce a multi-billion dollar development, and this year was Dubai Properties' turn.

On the second day the state-owned company unveiled its much-anticipated US$11bn project, a 678-hectare mixed-used development to be built in Dubailand - a colossal entertainment and leisure complex being constructed on the outskirts of the city. Named Mudon, Arabic for ‘Cities', it will house almost 50,000 people and include a range of villas, town houses and apartments, as well as a 93-hectare golf course. The project will be carried out in six phases and is scheduled for completion by 2012. Phases one and two of the project are already underway and are anticipated to be finished by the end of 2009. The design of the development will be themed around five prominent Arab cities, including Damascus, Marrakech, Cairo, Beirut and, perhaps surprisingly, Baghdad. Mohamed Binbrek, CEO at Dubai Properties, said the developer chose these particular five cities in an attempt to "bring the past into the future". Binbrek said the project would be entirely self-funded.

On the first day Dubai Properties unveiled a smaller, but equally impressive development within the emirate's growing Business Bay, the US$1bn Bay Square. The 46.5-hectare development will be made up of 13 buildings, including a boutique hotel and an exclusive residential tower. Other Dubai Properties projects include the Business Bay Vision Tower and Executive Towers, Culture Village, the Jumeirah Beach Residence and The Villa and Al Waha Villas in Dubailand.

Sustainability and the environment was the prevailing theme at this year's Cityscape. Omniyat Properties revealed three new regional projects around that theme which will see its initial investment in real estate treble to US$2.7bn in 2008. According to Omniyat, it will be "unlike anything the world has ever seen".

Since its inception, the company has already launched two residential and five commercial projects valued at over US$1.4bn, making it one of the region's fastest growing property developers.

Two new plots of land in Business Bay, facing the widest part of the Dubai Creek, with a built-up area of 700,000 sq ft will be used to develop a premium office complex similar in scale to Omniyat's hugely-successful project, The Opus, which has been 80% sold out since first being revealed in London five months ago. This new double-plot project will be ready for launch early next year.

Located on Dubai Waterfront - a master development by Nakheel - another new project will face the Palm Jebel Ali and will occupy one of the largest single plots of land available on the main beachfront in an area to be known as Madinat Al Arab. According to the company it will be designed by a star architect, guided by Omniyat's creative and innovative in-house product design team.

Omniyat is already working with some of the world's top international architects in Europe and the US on designing a US$544m multi-use real estate project on this plot of land. The 1.5 million sq ft project will include a 6-star hotel, residential apartments, serviced apartments and a shopping mall. All the apartments and hotel rooms will have a sea view, and will enjoy private access to the beach. Residents in the project will enjoy a public park that separates the plot on one side from the adjoining plot. At the other end of Dubai, in The Lagoons master-plan being executed by Sama Dubai, a subsidiary of Dubai Holdings - Omniyat has acquired four side-by-side creek-facing plots of land which overlook the Flamingo Wildlife Sanctuary on the east end of the Dubai Creek, just a couple of miles from Business Bay.

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