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Despite the global financial crisis, Dubai master-developer Limitless has refused to step back from its sustainability commitment on its Downtown Jebel Ali project, a move that may lead to healthy returns for contractors. Construction Week gets on site with project director Salah Ameen.
The concept of “green wash” has loomed large over the industry of late. As the financial crisis swept across the Atlantic and Europe, and washed up on the shores of the GCC nations, it was from the sustainability agenda, with its lack of short-term profit margins, which many developers chose to make cuts.
Dubai’s Downtown Jebel Ali (DJA) project is therefore refreshing for two reasons.
One, cuts have not been made from the original commitment to sustainability of master-developer Limitless, and two, despite the financial crisis, the project – at least the areas that Limitless is responsible for – appears to be making healthy progress.
“We are aiming for a completion date of January 2010 for the infrastructure across the entire project,” says project director Salah Ameen. “It is on schedule, and it is going well.”
Limitless broke ground on DJA in July 2007. The firm is responsible for the US $1.9 billion (AED7 billion) worth of infrastructure works across the project, and a number of commercial and residential structures in the eastern zone. At the time of its 2006 launch, DJA as a whole was value at a cool $19 billion.
The development is unusual in terms of its footprint. DJA runs parallel to Sheikh Zayed Road, measuring 11km from east to west, yet at its widest it is just 300m from north to south. It is strategically located north of the under-construction Al Maktoum International Airport.
DJA is divided into four zones, with a central plaza to be constructed in each. The plaza will form the focal point of a wider urban centre. Limitless bills each of these centres as “the place to be seen,” with business premises, apartments and retail facilities to be constructed in each.
The master-plan was the responsibility of Peter Calthorpe, founder of US-based architecture firm Calthorpe Associates. Calthorpe was named one of 25 “innovators on the cutting edge” by Newsweek Magazine for his work redefining the models of urban and suburban growth in America.
Calthorpe is known for his community design work with a focus on environmental sustainability and human scale – something that stands out on the DJA master-plan.
“People would love to have an area where they can walk to and from their residence and office,” Salah Ameen says. To meet this demand, the DJA master-plan includes closely-knit residential, office and commercial space.
Among the first structures to be talking shape are The Galleries – two groups of four buildings separated by a soon-to-be landscaped plaza dotted with cafés and restaurants – which Limitless is developing in the eastern zone.
As a sign that the progress being made is not all talk from the developer, the four buildings facing the road – all commercial use – are already over 50% occupied, with the remaining space in the process of being leased out.
“We have a board to select which tenants will move in,” Ameen says. Among the selected few to date are such names as cosmetics giant L’Oreal and telecoms group Ericsson.
“We have people employed by firms that have leased on commercial space, who have expressed an interest in the nearby residential space,” Ameen explains.
Now walking to work, for many a distant dream in Dubai, may not be such a long-shot in DJA.
Like all projects in the region, the progress of DJA from an infrastructure perspective does not mean that the development as a whole is immune from the bleak economic climate.
“We are facing a deficiency from some of the sub-developers but we are tackling this on an individual, case-by-case basis,” Limitless project director Salah Ameen explains.
“We are reviewing their payment plans and we are trying to be flexible and come to an agreement for revised payment schedules for every sub-developer that is facing liquidity problems.”
Each DJA sub-developer has its own build schedule, which will pave the way for an ongoing series of lucrative construction contracts, once international banks have recovered their balance sheets and are able to resume lending again, if on a more conservative basis.
