Limitless partners with Dar Al Handash to get megaproject moving again

The Dubai developer Limitless is renewing efforts to attract third-party developers to its stalled Dh70 billion Downtown Jebel Ali project.

The 200-hectare township, stretching 11 kilometres along the Sheikh Zayed Road between Jebel Ali Free Zone and Techno Park, was first launched in 2006 as Limitless’ s first development project in Dubai.

Yesterday Limitless announced that it had appointed the design and supervision consultant Dar Al Handash to review existing infrastructure on the project’s zones 2, 3 and 4 and oversee the process of getting it up to scratch for subdevelopers to build on.

Limitless said that it had awarded Dar Al Handash a Dh19.5 million contract to review the roads network on the site and the electricity, water and sewerage connections. Contracts to build further required infrastructure at the site will be put out to tender by the end of this year.

Designed to house 70,000 residents and 235,000 workers in 326 buildings, 237 of which will be residential, Downtown Jebel Ali was divided into four zones, each of which were supposed to have their own shops, hotels, offices and apartments, and which were to be connected by a light railway.

But although Limitless completed infrastructure work on zone one of the project and built four of the planned eight buildings at its The Galleries commercial scheme, about 300 plots – many of which were to be sold off to third-party developers – remain unstarted.

The announcement is the latest in a series of recent developments at the stalled project, which has been buoyed by the prospect of billions of dirhams being poured into government-backed megaprojects at the nearby 2020 Expo site and Al Maktoum Airport.

Yesterday Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, approved designs for the second phase of Al Maktoum International Airport in nearby Dubai World Central.

“The 2020 Expo is already translating into a flurry of construction activity across the city. The aviation sector looks set to deliver the next wave of growth for Dubai,” said Faisal Durrani, Cluttons’s International research and business development manager.

“The residential sector will no doubt be an obvious long-term benefactor of the significant rise in the number of jobs being created, with both lettings and buyer demand set to rise significantly as the number of households in the city increases. However, it is the commercial sector that stands to benefit the most in the short to medium term,” he added.

Limitless announced last November that it had signed an agreement with its sister company Nakheel to resume work on the construction of 323 flats for lease, which it stopped developing in 2010.

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