An aerial view of Meydan Sobha - District One located at a short distance of 2.9 kilometers from Burj Khalifa.
An aerial view of Meydan Sobha - District One located at a short distance of 2.9 kilometers from Burj Khalifa.

Meydan links up with Indian developer on Dubai mega project



With just days to go before Cityscape and property prices soaring, Meydan, the private developer behind the world’s largest horse racing complex, and the Indian developer Sobha are gearing up their efforts to market the first phases of a Dh21 billion mega project in Dubai.

The pair which are jointly developing 1,500 luxury villas set in 1,100 acres of parkland around the world’s biggest man-made lagoon, known as District One, are hoping they can take advantage of Dubai’s current property boom to launch an off-plan sales push.

The joint venture partners announced yesterday that they had completed construction of 80 per cent of the nine show villas they will be using to showcase the scheme. Full completion is expected in November.

Further announcements are set to follow in the build-up to the property exhibition as the developers seek to attract interest in the 48-hectare project, which is expected to be completed in about seven years and will be built around a 7 kilometre lagoon to be constructed by the swimming pool technology company Crystal Lagoons.

The project will form the first phase of the planned multibillion dollar Mohammed bin Rashid City project, located between Sheikh Zayed Road, Emirates Road and Al Khail Road, which is slated to comprise a new world’s biggest shopping mall dubbed The Mall of the World and more than 100 hotels.

The MBR City project, which was announced by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, last November, represents a revival of a similar Mohammed bin Rashid Gardens project, which was first announced in 2008 but never came off the drawing board because of the global financial crisis.

The 2008 master plan had suggested the Gardens project would cover 74 sq km, and cost US$60bn.

Back in the 2008 property boom, Cityscape became known as a show of excess, with investors throwing cheques down on off-plan properties. All that changed when the Dubai property market crashed and the exhibition shrank to a fraction of its boom time size.

But now with villa prices in Dubai up 26 per cent over the past 12 months to the end of September and apartment prices up 42 per cent according to the property broker Asteco, developers are once again gearing up for strong sales.

“Mohammed bin Rashid City-District One is poised to become a monumental destination in Dubai, offering a residential development in the heart of the city that is currently unique to anything else in the region,” said Saeed Humaid Al Tayer, the Meydan chairman and chief executive.

“District One will be the jewel in Sobha’s crown,” said PNC Menon, the founder and chairman of Sobha Group.

lbarnard@thenational.ae

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Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

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Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
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Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher:  Activision
Console: PlayStation 4 & 5, Windows, Xbox One & Series X/S
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Started: May 2018

Founder: Arjun Mohan

Based: Dubai

Size: 23 employees 

Funding: Raised $5.8m in a seed fund round in December 2018. Backers include Y Combinator, Beco Capital, Venturesouq, Paul Graham, Peter Thiel, Paul Buchheit, Justin Mateen, Matt Mickiewicz, SOMA, Dynamo and Global Founders Capital

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Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue

Director: M Night Shyamalan

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Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Profile

Company: Justmop.com

Date started: December 2015

Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan

Sector: Technology and home services

Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai

Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month

Funding:  The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups. 

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Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal 

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Info

What: 11th edition of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship

When: December 27-29, 2018

Confirmed: men: Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Kevin Anderson, Dominic Thiem, Hyeon Chung, Karen Khachanov; women: Venus Williams

Tickets: www.ticketmaster.ae, Virgin megastores or call 800 86 823

APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)

Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits

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In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter

Price: From Dh2,099

Pearls on a Branch: Oral Tales
​​​​​​​Najlaa Khoury, Archipelago Books

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Leap of Faith

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How to wear a kandura

Dos

  • Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion 
  • Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
  • Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work 
  • Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester

Don’ts 

  • Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal 
  • Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
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Company: Bidzi

● Started: 2024

● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid

● Based: Dubai, UAE

● Industry: M&A

● Funding size: Bootstrapped

● No of employees: Nine