The Palm Jumeirah gets a new F&B complex

dubai - Club Vista Mare features seven restaurants and 33 studio apartments

Nakheel's plans to scale up revenues from its retail and hospitality portfolio are firmly on track. The developer is steadily ramping up leisure and entertainment offerings at the Palm Jumeirah.

The developer opened Club Vista Mare, its new beachfront dining and residential complex on the Palm Jumeirah, on Monday. The two-storey complex includes seven restaurants on the ground floor and 33 studio apartments, all sold out.

Nakheel also opened a Premier Inn hotel attached to Ibn Battuta Mall on Sunday.

The total development cost of Club Vista Mare is Dh120 million and it is nestled between the Shoreline Apartments and Tiara Residences.
The restaurants are Gursha, The Tap House, Simply Italian, Abyat, Ibn Al Bahr, Aji and Breeze serving Ethiopian, European, Italian, Arabic, seafood, Japanese/Peruvian and beach grill cuisines respectively.

All the restaurants have direct beach access and views of the sea, the Palm Jumeirah and the Dubai skyline.

The studios in Club Vista Mare are being marketed as the only beachfront studios available on the Palm Jumeirah. A Club Vista Mare studio listed on a local classifieds website spans 560 sq ft and is renting for Dh105,000 annually.

The Club Vista Mare F&B complex complements Palm Views East and West, two other Nakheel-owned restaurant destinations that opened on Palm Jumeirah last year. Nakheel also operates clubs at Jumeirah Islands and Jebel Ali, with more on the way.

Meanwhile, Ali Rashid Lootah, chairman of Nakheel, said that the developer would launch sales for the 52-storey Palm Tower and Ibn Battuta Residences in the first quarter of 2017.

St Regis has been signed on as the hotel operator for the Palm Tower. Prices of residential units at the Tower start from Dh1.7 million and go up to Dh3.5 million. The construction value of the tower is Dh819 million.

The developer is planning a road show in Singapore soon to promote the Palm Tower, the twin-tower Ibn Battuta Residences and Palm 360, a twin-tower hotel and residential project featuring penthouses spanning 12,000 square feet.

"We have the prime locations and it made business sense to develop them. Everything is ready for their launch. We are in the final stages of negotiations with banks for general funding requirements," informed Lootah.

The developer plans to hand over 1,767 residential units in Dubai before the year end. "We will not get into the affordable market space. our comfort remains in the mid to high-end. Based on our sales numbers, clearly there is still good demand for quality offerings."

Another upscale retail and F&B destination is also taking shape on the Palm - The Pointe - which is expected to open by the end of 2016 or in the first quarter of 2017.

"The Pointe is almost 75 per cent leased out," said the Nakheel chairman, adding that construction is in full swing on the Dh1.2 billion Nakheel Mall.

Ahead of releasing its Q3 results next week, the Nakheel executive sounded upbeat: "We will have growth this year in terms of revenues."

- deepthi@khaleejtimes.com

• Food and Dining