Dubai Pearl project tenders issued

The MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) and aluminium and glazing (façade) tenders on the Dubai Pearl project has been issued by the main contractor and is scheduled to be finalised by September according to the CEO.

Meanwhile, the construction costs were brought down, he said. "We signed the original contract in late 2008 as a gross maximum price (GMP) one. The total value was nearly Dh9bn -plus then and we were able to bring it down to Dh7.4bn, which is a good saving and has been passed on to our customers, Santhosh Joseph, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Pearl, told Emirates Business. The project is expected to be complete by end-2012 or beginning 2013.

"The MEP tender has been issued by the main contractor (Al Habtoor-Leighton) and scheduled to be finalised by September 16. The aluminium and glazing (façade) tender has been issued and the sub-contractor will be appointed by September 30," he said. The lifts and escalators tender has been issued by main contractor and the sub-contractor will be on board by October 15. "The project has already got the pre-Gold Leed rating and it took us some time to achieve it," he said. "We are in the middle of getting the Gold Certification." The economies of scale will work in favour of the developer who plans to work on multiple buildings at the same time. "We can aggressively do a floor a week but have decided against it and plan to take one-and-a-half to two weeks on a floor. The finishing will take time though we have sold many units as shell and core. So we can start delivering by late 2012 and hotels will take longer than that. We have shifted our programme but that suits our customers. We have also changed our components on the projects so that the residential component is 42 per cent, offices 24 per cent [earlier, both were equal], retail and others 15 per cent and the seven hotels comprise 19 per cent, due to the change in market conditions."

Around 30,000 people are expected to live within this mixed-use development, which has anchors such as wellness, sport and entertainment. "The aim is to create an entertainment district for Dubai and we will start a creative society to incubate local talent in all walks of life," said Joseph. "Landscaping is still a provisional aspect on the tenders list. Since it will comprise 45 per cent of external spaces, we will be involved on that aspect." The development will be pedestrianised with climate-controlled walkways.

DESIGN AND PLANNING

The project had its share of issues and had received much flak after its initial launch in 2002 by Omnix Group. Due to the slow progress, master developer Tecom Investments sold the project to a group of investors led by Al Fahim Group, which repositioned the development and re-launched it.

Dubai Pearl is to be built entirely on an urban infill. The site is surrounded on the north by Knowledge Village and on the south by Media and Internet Cities.

The Podium Palaces are on the Palm Jumeirah side of the development, the four towers joined by a single roof are in the centre and the Pearl Plaza is on the Sheikh Zayed Road side. The size of the site is 1.8 million square feet.

Schweger Association Architects said: "The main building will be constructed of steel and concrete columns with glass façade. The crown of the building is an 18-metre high steel structure connecting the central cores for the different towers." Meinhardt, the lead engineers, will do the Gold Leed rating certification.

The master plan envisages a mixed-use development and the Ring Road will be the point of direct access to the site. The project will feature five access areas – The Palm (entrance), Ring Road (entrance and exit), Al Sufouh (exit), Tecom roundabout (exit and entrance) and Dubai Media City (exit).

FACT FILE

- The excavation for the four towers, measuring 8.07m from the bottom of the raft to the ground level, was completed in eight weeks. Each foundation slab is 3.25m thick with a 3,072 sqm cubic area

- About 44,000 cubic metres (m3) of concrete were poured into the foundation of the towers; and utilising more than 10,000 tonnes of steel reinforcements

- The raft foundation on Tower 4 comprises 11,500 m3 of concrete, 2,500 metric tonnes of steel reinforcements and took a record 30 hours in one continuous pour to complete

- Currently 600 people are on site daily and over 100 people are working inside on the core wall at a given time

- Tower 1 and 3 are at level three; Tower 2 and 4 at level two

- The site has a 132KV substation and a dedicated district cooling plant

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