Nakheel pulls off Cityscape coup

Nakheel pulled off a bloodless Cityscape coup on Sunday night - stealing the show before it had even started with the launch of a kilometre-high tower that is likely to become the world’s tallest building.

In front of an audience of VIPs that included Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, the developer chose the recently completed Atlantis hotel to reveal the giant structure.

The model itself was about three storeys high, and like the Millennium Dome, could easily be put to use for another purpose after the show winds up.

Like a giant Dalek, it inched its way towards the crowd. Through an illuminated blanket of dry ice and accompanied by thundering music which grew to a crescendo, the model slowly moved towards centre stage before coming to a halt with a wobble, that appeared not to have been entirely choreographed.

It was an impressive sight and will be no less an impressive feat of engineering when it comes to be built. In fact the tower is not one building, but four – all independent structures cross-braced by sky bridges along its elevation. It will be the centrepiece of a $38bn project that Nakheel anticipates will become the new centre of Dubai.

But that could be more than a decade away and in the meantime the regional real estate industry will have other issues to contemplate – chief among them a global lending crisis that threatens the viability of many of the projects that will be on display at this year’s event.

The tower was launched at the end of what was a bad day for regional markets in general and a particularly bad one for the real estate sector.

Across the Gulf, the top ten real estate companies lost an average of 4.7 percent from their share prices on Sunday – led by Emaar, which finished 12.3 percent down.

The tower will restore some of the feel good factor missing from the industry in recent weeks. How long that will last is another question that will be debated by many at this year’s show.

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Who's your daddy????
Posted by Trojan on Tuesday 7 October 2008 at 22:46 UAE time


Come on guys! I am getting seriously disappointed by your quality of journalism, if you can call it that. Rob is right, this does indeed sound like a press release by the developer. An annoucement of something that might or might not start in a year or two does not mean much in my book. "I want to have my face on the one-dollar bill" - now does that mean anything to anyone?

Nakheel's move was nothing more than another piece of spin from the Dubai real estate hype machine trying to save itself from the inevitible crash. They are playing on people's logical falacies, where they think that the "demand leads to building" relationship holds in reverse.

Balance?! Objectivity?!
Posted by rob, Salmiya, Kuwait on Tuesday 7 October 2008 at 11:02 UAE time

Lotsa boosterism, too little objectivity in this piece. "...when it comes to be built," "...will be the centerpiece," etc. Maybe it will. Maybe it won't. This reads more like a press release than something serious.

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