The Chief Operating Officer of Schon Properties is eloquence personified and his knowledge about the industry he is operating in is impeccable. Noorul Asif, who is basically a computer scientist, looks at things differently compared to other experts in the market and hence his views are absolutely interesting and are often backed by facts and figures. In this freewheeling chat with Property Time, he shares his expertise on the market with our readers and also why Schon Properties is a force to reckon with in the property development sector. He says his diverse experience has helped him in his career in real estate as he found it easier to find solutions for various problems that he faced over the years.
Schon Business Park
Schön Business Park is an icon of Schön Group’s innovative perspective and far-sighted thinking, and above that, a timely development for the ever growing need of a bustling metropolis. It is a perfect location-conscious and cost-effective decision you can take when it comes to office space in Dubai. By creating an uncompromising territory of self-contained and versatile units, sharing superior facilities and retail spaces, Schön Business Park is on its way to becoming one of the most desired addresses in the corporate world. The development has been conceptualized in such a way that we actually created a mall with offices on the top. The offices have a support system at the bottom which is providing them with the necessary services and the retail units have the financial support coming in from the office because the people working there will be paying for all these services. It is a small eco system that we created. It is located near schools like Greenfield International School and The International School of Choueifat, supermarkets like Carrefour and communities such as Green Community. This becomes a central area where people can work, shop and eat. Such is the accuracy of the planning and designing of this project that we created almost 30% extra parking lots, which is extremely crucial once the retail units become fully operational. We have more than 1,200 parking spaces and 14 lifts. It features 293 offices and 93 retail units and is spread over an area of 1.6 million square feet. There is a food court area as well with nine outlets, which will cater to the people working in the development. The shell and core office units are priced at AED650 per square foot. Schön Business Park is the only development in DIP wherein buyers can purchase individual units based on our agreement with DIP.
The project will provide end-users with a greater flexibility and choice with a variety of commercial spaces that can match the needs and requirements of any business. Ideal both as an investment whereby space can be bought and then leased out, or for businesses who want to own their own premises, the Park offers complete flexibility, competitive prices and state-of-the-art facilities and amenities.
The close proximity of Schön Business Park to DWC is one of the highlights of this development. With direct access to the major trans-emirate road networks, DWC is a true multimodal logistics platform providing unprecedented levels of connectivity, speed and efficiency. On the other hand, DWC is embracing the aerotropolis model, resulting in a carefully designed, forward-looking master plan that sets the framework for Dubai’s economic future. An area of 140 square kilometers has been designated to create a self-sustained economic zone to support a multitude of activities including logistics, aviation, commercial, exhibition, humanitarian, residential and leisure related businesses around a world-class airport with the planned annual capacity of 12 million tons of cargo and 160 million passengers.
We have already received the building completion certificate and electricity has been connected. Once you visit Schon Business Park, you will find the cosmopolitan Dubai represented over there. Schon Business Park is expected to generate over 7,000 jobs in Dubai. Of course it is going to happen over a period of time and not overnight. So we would like to believe that we have contributed to the economy of Dubai.
Dubai Investment Park
This development was launched 15 years ago and has witnessed tremendous growth over the years. It is conceptualized as a city within a city and is spread over an area of 2,300 hectares out of which 1,700 hectares already leased. It offers world-class infrastructure and outstanding facilities and services. It is located within minutes from Al Maktoum International Airport in Jebel Al and well connected to Dubai’s leading business districts such as Dubai Downtown, and can be accessed from both Sheikh Zayed Road and Emirates Road. When we visited DIP for the first time in 2005, we didn’t know that the airport would be built here and that it would be so big, and we didn’t know that the Metro would pass through this area or the Expo2020 would be declared in this area. These are things that have now become favourable to the whole project and add value to it. I believe Dubai Investment Park, by virtue of its name, is going to attract a lot of offices, warehouses, labour camps and factories because it has a very large industrial base over there. Schon Business Park provides about 8% of the office supply in DIP.
DIP is undoubtedly an amazing place to live and work in. While it has most of the components required for a big development of this scale, I believe it requires more hotels as it now has only Marriot, Armada and Premier Inn. We will see a lot of hotels coming up over the next few years. Our serviced apartment projects are also shaping up well in DIP. Schon has an affinity for DIP but we are also looking at expanding into other areas as we want to leverage the brand name we created.
Schon Properties is a professionally management organization. We have established ourselves as an organization that delivers. We continue to come up with new concepts such as the first man-made beach in Dubai located in our project Dubai Lagoon. It is white sand leading up to actual swimmable water in the middle of the desert. We always try to add value to our projects and make it interesting for our buyers. We have survived the worst financial crisis in recent times, which shows how strong we are. Survival was quite difficult but we managed to pull it off as we knew there was potential in the long term. We are eyeing Business Bay and Dubai Marina areas where we have identified projects in the approval stage. Once the approvals are done we will be making formal announcement about those developments.
Expo2020
The upcoming expo is a ship which we can’t afford to miss as there will be a huge demand for properties closer to the expo. So currently our focus is on developing projects that will cater to the demand generated by the expo and once that is taken care of we will divert our attention to other projects. Dubai will host the prestigious Expo 2020, taking UAE into the spotlight of the global community. The Expo will be a platform for connectivity to help pioneer new partnerships for growth and sustainability for the future. The rapid development of Dubai into the forefront of human progress shows what’s possible in this spectacular city. The UAE is logistically ready to host Expo 2020. Two thirds of the world’s population now lives within an eight-hour flight of Dubai. Just under 9 million visitors made the trip here last year. And with an expected 25 million visitors, the emirate has announced plans to add 80,000 hotel rooms by 2020 to handle the influx. Schon is playing its part to contribute to this room shortage.
Schon Business Park
• No of stories: 2B + G +3
• No of offices: 293
• Retail development: 93
• Elevators: 6 panoramic / 8 regular – 15 passengers capacity
• Office parking: 1,300 spaces in total over 2 basement floors largest office
• Total built-up area: 1,145,410 sq. ft.
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