Oasis to make way for new project

One of Dubai's oldest hotels is to close at the end of this month ahead of its demolition to make way for a new mixed-use project.

Oasis Beach Hotel, which has been in business for 14 years, will be razed to make way for a new multi-storey structure, which will be completed by 2010, according to real estate developers Al Fattan Properties. Further details of the new projects have not been released.

Al Fattan, which owns many real estate developments in Dubai, will construct the new property.

The company is chaired and owned by Lieutant-General Musabbah Rashid Al Fattan.

Oasis, the only four-star beach-front property along Jumeirah Beach, has 252 rooms. The hotel's total occupancy rate stood at 64 per cent during the current summer months.

Manager Saji Christman said: "The owner of the land wanted to demolish the building and set up a new project. We have no details of the new project." A spokesperson for Jebel Ali International Hotels, which manages the hotel, said: "We have nothing to comment and we don't have any information."

Salah Ali Abdul Aziz, general manager of Al Fattan Properties, said: "The new project to replace the Oasis Beach Hotel will be a mixed-use property with hotel, offices, residential units and serviced apartments – it will have a variety of things."

He said he did not want to reveal any further information for fear of it affecting bookings ahead of the closure, despite the close being announced in an e-mail.

Further announcements and details regarding the projects will be released in four weeks, he said.

Other new projects by Al Fattan include a five-star Hotel Marina Residency development on The Palm Jumeirah, a 12-storey office building in Dubai Marina, and a mixed-use 52-storey apartment as well as a three-storey leisure development in the new DIFC free zone.