Jumeirah adds community aspect to Al Andalus

A large new community centre at Jumeirah Golf Estates featuring retail, food and beverage outlets and a hotel is likely to start construction early next year, according to the chief executive Yousuf Kazim, with completion likely by the second quarter of 2018.

Mr Kazim said that work on the project would run alongside the building of the first two of eight planned apartment buildings in the new Al Andalus district, which are set to be delivered at the same time.

“Frankly, we wanted to accelerate the retail and the hospitality, so we are really looking at it in parallel. When the customers will be coming in, they’ll find the facilities already within the community.”

Jumeirah Golf Estates initially held a soft launch of Al Andalus in May this year but announced construction of the first two blocks – one 10-storey and one 12-storey containing a combined 180 units, at Cityscape Dubai last week. In total, Al Andalus will contain 674 apartments and 55 townhomes. He said the community facilities would be built in the middle of Al Andalus and would serve the whole of the first phase of Jumeirah Golf Estates.

“We are awarding the contract for enabling and infrastructure towards the end of this month,” said Mr Kazim, “At the same time, towards the end of the year we will have the awards for the contractors for the two [residential] buildings as well.”

The company has branded the apartments as affordable luxury, and Mr Kazim said it is keen to start construction as it is offering a payment plan with stages linked to completion targets. Buyers will pay 10 per cent upfront, 70 per cent over the two-year construction phase and a final 20 per cent on handover.

Mr Kazim said he also hopes to be able to announce deals with retailers and an operator for the hospitality elements soon so they can give their input into this part of the project ahead of work starting.

He argued that work by the RTA to improve the road network around the area should finish at about the same time as these buildings complete. Al Fay Road will run alongside the development and is being extended to have six lanes in each direction. It connects at the interchange with Al Khail Road and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road in one direction, and with Emirates Road in the other. It will also link to a new road to Dubai Academic City.

Meanwhile, Jumeirah Golf Estate’s first retail centre – a smaller development containing a new grocery store, restaurant and cafe, will open in the Wildflower community in September next year.

The centre is being developed by DAR Properties and will be built by City Diamond Contracting. It will be operated by Maybury, which runs existing stores in Dubai Marina and Abu Dhabi.

When asked about future development of the community, including future phases containing more courses, Mr Kazim said its immediate obligation was to build out phase A, and that there would be pressure on it to deliver as a result of its proximity to the Expo 2020 site in the Dubai South district.

“It’s not a small piece of land – it’s 370 acres,” he said.

The latest report by property consultancy Asteco for Cityscape shows that prices for villas have dropped by 10 per cent since the end of the second quarter. This is part of a Dubai-wide trend in which demand has shifted away from bigger, high-end villas to smaller, more affordable properties.

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