Limitless to hand over 600 DJA units this year

Limitless will hand over around 600 residential units and 900,000 square foot of commercial space in Downtown Jebel Ali, its Dh70 billion township development, by end of the year, a senior company executive said.

"We will ready 600 residential units across two buildings and 900,000 square feet of commercial space, all of which will be handed over by year-end on lease-basis," Salah Ameen, Project Director, Downtown Jebel Ali, Limitless, told Emirates Business.

Downtown Jebel Ali, which is spread across 11 kilometres, comprises 329 plots and around 300 plots have been sold out to third party developers. Limitless will retain the rest of the plots for its own development. There are four blocks within the Downtown Jebel Ali project and the plazas are in the centre of every zone. "Each zone has its own plaza and we are expecting to break-ground on our first plaza by end of this year," said Ameen.

"Four commercial buildings have already been built within Downtown Jebel Ali and 60 per cent of these buildings are leased and occupied," he said.

A total of eight buildings will be ready by the end of the year in Downtown Jebel Ali and all of them will be leased. "The market situation indicates the direction for us and I believe the market today is more geared towards setting up a leasing portfolio. What we are providing to our clients is not just providing a building but also giving all the facilities," said Ameen.

"The minimum lease area is 3,000 sq ft and the maximum is around 15,000 sq ft. We have a Limitless Asset Management Team that looks after all the leasing and co-ordination with clients."

With respect to ensuring, sub-developers build on time, Ameen said the master-developer was giving all sub-developers around five years time to build their project from the date of the land purchase contract.

"The serious sub-developers do not have a problem to build in Downtown Jebel Ali, they know the Dubai market and the global recession that is looming."

"In current market conditions, we are in talks with our sub-developers to build on time," he added. According to Limitless, around 70 developers' designs have been approved at different stages.

"As far as we know there are some sub-developers who have already opened an escrow account."

Providing details on the Sales Purchase Agreements (SPAs), Ameen said: "Usually these [SPAs] contain elements such as the terms of payment, the pricing of the project and the time of development within each plot." Limitless is trying to be as transparent as they can with respect to their sub-developers due to the crisis in current times, he added.

"All the plots have been handed over to third party developers and we are constantly discussing with them about their concerns and issues and trying to come to a consensus that will serve both parties.

"With respect to the overall development we have not put any set date for construction completion and hand-over," said Ameen. "We are offering some respite since we are very open and have held many meetings with our sub-developers. As long as they are willing to come to a mutual agreement, we have all their concerns and will try to help them out as much as we can. But if we are dealing with somebody having extreme case, we will have to take action."

Limitless said it has received a number of enquiries from people who are interested in the residential development of the master development.

"We have received a lot of interest because it is in the Jafza area and people living in Abu Dhabi are showing keenness to live within Downtown Jebel Ali. We have people who work in Abu Dhabi, preferring to live in Dubai and they are our potential customers," said Ameen.

Limitless said the issue of providing visa to a developer would depend on the Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department.

"If they come down with a plan then we will adopt that. I would welcome anything that regularises the market. If they can come up with a set of standards that this must be applicable we would agree."

Ameen said the downturn has affected everybody but the extent varies.

"We are trying to go back and manage our cash flows as we are prioritising expenditure," he added.

Keep up with the latest business news from the region with the Emirates Business 24|7 daily newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter, please click here.