Aldar Properties will issue main construction tenders for four of its projects and award them in the second half of this year, a top executive of the Abu Dhabi-based real estate developer has said.
Talal Al Dhiyebi, Aldar’s chief development officer, told Reuters at the Cityscape Abu Dhabi conference last month that among the projects expected to be tendered are the Yas Mall hotel, the Retail Park on Yas Island and the Shams Central Retail Park on Reem Island.
“We’ll have a lot of tendering activity in the second half of this year. These projects are all in the design stage, and we’re hoping to tender in the second half of this year,” Reuters quoted Al Dhiyebi as saying. He added that the projects are also likely to be awarded by the end of the year.
This follows a statement from the developer in March announcing an $816.8m investment programme for several new projects on which construction is expect to start this year and end in 2019 and 2020. The projects include mid-market residential, hospitality, leisure and retail assets on Yas and Reem Islands.
The Shams Central Retail Park will include a mosque and a public park, apart from retail facilities, while the mixed-use Shams Marina master plan features 329 marina residences, 192 serviced apartments, a 262-key four-star hotel, a club house and a private beach.
Other elements of the mixed-use project were also in various design stages and could also be “potentially” tendered this year, Al Dhiyebi added.
Speaking about the Yas Mall, he said the planned 349-key hotel, which will be attached to the mall, will also include 70 serviced apartments. The mall will also be expanded further. “We have demand right now for some more big-box retail around Yas Mall,” he said and added that the Yas Island Retail Park would be expanded to include a leasable area of 27,000sqm, with new car dealerships and food outlets.
Aldar also plans to tender its six-tower The Bridges project “in the next few months” with construction slated to start in the fourth quarter this year and end in the first quarter of 2020. The company said in a statement that all units available for sale in the towers had sold out during Cityscape Abu Dhabi this year, with a total of $108.8m in sales registered.
As part of expanding its asset management portfolio, Aldar said three of the six towers at The Bridges would not be available for sale but would be leased to tenants to grow its portfolio of investment properties.
Aldar is also evaluating bids for its Yas Acres mixed-use project launched at Cityscape last year, Al Dhiyebi said. “We are currently in the evaluation stage,” he told Reuters. “We are imminently expected to award a large construction contract on Yas Acres for development of the infrastructure and villas.”
In October last year, Aldar awarded a $42.2m contract to Bauer Geotechnical Specialised Foundation for the project’s foundation works.
[Ref: meconstructionnews.com]
