Arabtec in lead to win Shaikh Holdings' contracts

Arabtec is in the lead to receive contracts from Shaikh Holdings for the company's two new property developments at the Dubai Waterfront and in Abu Dhabi.

Imran Shaikh, Chief Executive Officer of Shaikh Holdings, yesterday told Emirates Business that talks are on with several contractors for the two projects that are yet to be launched.

Shaikh Holdings plans to build several luxury towers at the Dubai Waterfront and a villa project in Abu Dhabi. The towers are to be in the range of 11 floors each.

"We have very strong relations with Arabtec. Having a contractor like Arabtec does not only add credit to us as developers but also to our clients," said Shaikh.

Arabtec is also the lead contractor for the Dh850 million Sanctuary Falls villa development in Jumeirah Golf Estates.

Launched in July 2007, the Sanctuary Falls project was the first resort-style golf residential community in the UAE. The contract for the development was awarded to Arabtec for Dh412m in March 2008. The community features a collection of 96 resort-style villas overlooking the Earth golf course, designed by Greg Norman.

"We have ensured that everything is in place for the timely completion of the project. Work on the project is progressing as scheduled and will be complete by the first quarter of 2010," said Shaikh. "There are so many problems that developers face when it comes to timely completion of a project. Starting from contractors being under-resourced to developers themselves being under-financed and on many occasions lack of proper management of finance. By signing a fixed-price contract we also ensured that the construction cost is under control. Material prices kept rising until last month. We are hoping these will fall further."