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Nakheel hits back at ACI Waterfront claims
Master developer Nakheel on Monday hit back at claims made by Dubai property group ACI Real Estate - and insisted its Waterfront mega-project was going ahead.
Robin Lohmann, managing director of ACI Real Estate, in an interview with Arabian Business this week, blamed the state-owned developer for a lack of progress on his flagship Ferretti Luxury Beach Residence and Pershing Luxury Beach Residence projects, located in the Madinat Al Arab area of the Nakheel’s Waterfront development in Jebel Ali.
“We have invested in several plots in Dubai Waterfront. We need to know from the master developer of Waterfront, which is Nakheel, if they plan to go ahead with the project now or not. Once we have these answers we can give to answers our purchasers,” Lohmann said.
But in an emailed statement to Arabian Business Nakheel said it had handed over ACI’s two plots and the company was free to start construction.
“The two plots which ACI own at Madinat Al Arab have already been handed over,” a spokesman for Nakheel said.
"Waterfront has not been cancelled. Our current focus at Waterfront is on Badrah, Veneto, and Madinat Al Arab. Work continues to make good progress at these sites,” the spokesman added.
The Madinat Al Arab phase of the Waterfront is due for completion in 2015. Other sub-developers such as Plus Properties have started construction at Madinat on its Pixel Tower and Wave Residence projects.
“At Madinat Al Arab, we remain committed to providing infrastructure to third party developers as per their Sales and Purchase Agreements. The majority of plots in this phase have been handed over with some third party developers already mobilised on-site,” the Nakheel spokesman added.
Dubai-based property developer and investment company ACI Real Estate, is a division ACI (Alternative Capital Invest) Group, a German firm with interests in asset management and real estate.
The Waterfront is a planned seaside mega project, twice the size of Hong Kong. It is being built over six phases and completion dates range from 2010 to 2018.
Nakheel said in December the Madinat Al Arab, Veneto, Badra and Canal District phases of the Waterfront were pressing ahead, while other sections would be delayed in the wake of the global crisis.
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Posted by Paolo L., Verona, Italy on 22 August 2009 at 23:12 UAE time
The situation is for me very clear. There isn't enough money out there for Nakheel and others to move forward. Without infrastructure developers see no need to proceed. At the same time master developer and developer are blaming one another to gain time and to move the attention elsewhere. They will not announce cancellations because they are unable to pay. So we are all hanging in a limbo. In the best scenario most of you will get out of it in 3-4 years.
Posted by Rammy, Dubai, UAE on 21 August 2009 at 22:37 UAE time
Nakheel Should come clean with the hard working investors who made it what it currently is.
They should announce and without delay the Indeed they have canceled the Badrah II project, cause no way they will complete it in by end of 2011 and they can not extend the delivery any further.
So all they are doing is frustrating the investors and trying to push them to so called consolidation. This is just not acceptable behaviour from someone like Nakheel. They will lose so much turst than what they already have lost with the investors, it will simply stupid for Nakheel to continue with Badrah II and other off plans projects , no investor will be crazy enough to continue paying them any further instalments, why would they, when they can get for the same price a finished, larger property in place like JBR or Dubai Marina.??
Posted by Amir, Dubai, UAE on 20 July 2009 at 11:18 UAE time
Exactly. I am aware that at one stage Nakheel decided to keep a rather manageable portion of Waterfront Project (where they can afford to start working on the infrastructure and developers are willing to start construction) and reassign lands in other parts of Dubai to other developers should they wish to honor their commitments to their investors. But it seems with the current economic climate, Nakheel missed that chance and now the best thing to do - for everyone - is to cancel this huge and costly project and let investors get their money back. They should know that investors are no longer interested in these projects. Time has changed and the players should also accept the new realities. Nakheel is losing a lot money ever day by the indecision regarding these projects, including big buck projects such as The World where they invested billions of Dollars on infrastructure and the islands are yet to be built. I think this is the time for making intelligent decisions, and fast.
Posted by The Don, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on 19 July 2009 at 22:34 UAE time
I do strongly believe that Government of Dubai should go ahead and cancel all Nakheel water front projects because under current circumstances insisting on these projects will create a big hole in Dubai government finances. Better to bit the difficult decision today, preserve the land for future generations than feeling sorry for something will require significant financial investment and comes at a very dear price paid from Dubai reputation.
Posted by Danny White, Bangkok, Thailand on 13 July 2009 at 16:27 UAE time
How about Al Furjan ?
Any one has any comments on Al Furjan ?
Posted by Amir, Dubai, UAE on 13 July 2009 at 15:14 UAE time
Only Nakheel can clean up this Waterfront mess. Ping Pong playing between the Master Developer (Nakheel) and the Developer (here ACI and there are many more) would be at the expense of a lot of investors who are caught between and are confused. I believe the best solution would be to cancel Waterfront project and give the investors their money back. RERA should play its role in this case and protect investors.
Posted by Amgad Attia, Dubai, UAE on 13 July 2009 at 15:05 UAE time
We are other investors with another developer in Jumairah Village, and construction was ongoing...Suddenly it stopped, as developer is claiming that Nakheel is not ready yet with the DEWA requirements...what we see, is that there is lack of coordination between Nakheel...Develpers...and Lastly the Owners..We need more transparency...as the due date to hand the property is passed since 7 months ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Neil, Dubai, UAE on 13 July 2009 at 12:50 UAE time
I think that Nakheel are being evasive when they respond in this way. Ok the plots may have been handed over, but in reality what developer in his right mind is going to spend money building a tower when there is no adjoining infrastructure, no signs of progress on this infrastructure or indeed any plans to complete this in the foreseeable future.
The same applies to the City of Arabia. Is the infrastructure complete? Is there sealed road access, power, water and telecom connections or any prospect for these being completed? The answer in both cases is clearly NO. So how can you expect a plot developer to sink hundreds of millions of dirhams building a white elephant in the desert? Clearly that would be madness.
I'm not making excuses for ACI or the other developers who bit off more than they could chew in the search for profit but there are certainly bigger issues at play affecting their options that shouldn't be ignored.
Posted by Ahmed Saleh, Dubai, UAE on 13 July 2009 at 12:07 UAE time
It's the same situation in City of Arabia project. ACI claimed that they didn't start the wings of arabia project because the master developer didn't hand over the plot, which is not true.
Posted by Moe, Dubai, UAE on 13 July 2009 at 10:25 UAE time
No more easy fast profits, everyone who is planning to buy a property in Dubai (if there is any) should carefully read the Sales & purchase agreement, and make sure there is a handing over date (not a time range, i.e: within 2010 etc) and penalties if developer failed to deliver.