Plans for The Palm

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The Palm Jumeirah's biggest investor talks about the ambitious developments for the man-made island.

It was a bold move to sign up serious amounts of money for just water," Patrick Smith, vice president asset management for IFA Hotels & Resorts, tells Arabian Business.

It was a bold move - it was also a move which is currently costing the company US$2bn in construction alone - but it was also a decision which places the hotel and resort developer as the biggest investor in The Palm Jumeirah, with three stand-alone hotels and three separate residences.

"Dubai had just started booming and Talal Jassim Al-Bahar (chairman and managing director) saw the opportunity to align the company alongside the likes of Nakheel, so he signed for the plots when they were literally water," continues Smith.

No longer just water or plans, IFA Hotels & Resorts is the owner of approximately 50% of the land on the trunk of The Palm and three prime plots on The Crescent, next to the famed Atlantis Hotel. "There is a real mixture [of investments in The Palm].

We've taken equity stakes in the hotels and we've sold property. Sales have been strong; we've effectively sold out of trunk developments, and are still selling in the Kingdom of Sheba." IFA has already sold more than 2000 residential units and just last week started to hand over keys to owners of Dubai's first freehold residential building to be managed by an international hotel operator.

Its investments on the trunk of The Palm alone exceed US$2.5bn and include both hotel and residential developments. The Golden Mile is a joint project with Nakheel and is the company's largest development consisting of ten 11-storey apartments housing 860 residential units.

Other trunk projects include The Fairmont Palm Residence and The Fairmont Hotel & Resort, both due for completion this year and wholly owned by the company. As the name suggests, all three developments will be run by international hotel operator the Fairmont; IFA's choice for many of its investments across the world including Fairmont Zimbali in South Africa.

Completing its portfolio of investments on The Palm is the Kingdom of Sheba, a "mixed-use hotel, residence, timeshare and fractional ownership" covering three plots of land next to the Atlantis Hotel.

The Kingdom of Sheba, a family friendly project, is based on IFA's first successful business model in Pine Cliffs, Portugal.

Like Pine Cliffs, the Kingdom of Sheba resort will also be home to a timeshare development, the first branded one of its kind in the UAE.

The timeshare model is about being able to come into a resort where you can stay for one night in the hotel, or buy and stay in the timeshare as an investment, stay a week or a month in the timeshare, buy time into the fractional ownership or live there," explains Smith.

IFA is currently working on getting the correct legislation into place with both the local government and its partners, RCL, an affiliation company which allows timeshare destinations to be swapped between owners.

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