Tremors were felt in Dubai on Monday morning as demolition work began on an unfinished real estate project. A thick cloud of dust rose from the former Dubai Pearl development near Media City around 11am. Unfinished buildings in the <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/dubai-pearl-woos-with-class-1.228170" target="_blank">long-abandoned project</a> are being cleared. Contractors using diggers and a wrecking ball have been pulling down half a dozen buildings in the area since November. Nearby residents felt tremors - which some originally thought was an earthquake. The Pearl is located on highly valuable land adjacent to The Palm Jumeirah — which has seen a <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/property/2022/11/25/billionaires-row-on-palm-jumeirah-now-most-exclusive-street-for-dubais-rich-and-famous/" target="_blank">dramatic boom</a> in property prices since the end of the pandemic. Dubai's government owned the original land, before the development two decades ago, but it is not known what is in store for the site once cleared. Work on the project <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/property/key-investor-pulls-out-of-3-8bn-dubai-pearl-1.394541" target="_blank">stalled around 2011</a>, as several investors in a complex consortium pulled out. At least 1,500 apartments and seven hotels were planned at one stage. Two Canadian architects made global headlines last year when they proposed building an enormous resort that resembled the Moon on the Pearl site. In September, Michael Henderson, one of the designers, <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/travel/news/2022/09/09/is-a-5-billion-moon-shaped-luxury-resort-coming-to-dubai/" target="_blank">told <i>The National</i></a><i> </i>there were no concrete plans yet for the project, which would cost an estimated $5 billion to build. “Within the Mena region we could see Moon being developed in either the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain or Kuwait,” he said at the time.
