Al Maabar set to award $300m Amman deal

Al Maabar, which was established by five Abu Dhabi-based investment and realty firms including Mubadala, Aldar Properties, Al Qudra Holdings, Sorouhand Reem Investments, had announced in the past the multi-billion US dollar worth realty projects in Morocco, Jordan and Libya.

Yousef Al Nowais, managing director of Al Maabar, said that his luxury mixed-use project in Jordan’s capital Amman The Residences at The St. Regis has got good market response.

“We are delighted by the bookings for The Residences at the St. Regis Amman, to date, which are now more than 25 per cent,” Al Nowais told Khaleej Times on the sidelines of Cityscape Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

“These figures represent bookings prior to the official sales launch for the first private branded residences to be available for purchase in Jordan,” he said. The mixed-use project comprises on two towers, which will be interconnected through an external façade. In one tower, luxury The St Regis Amman hotel be located, while the other would be apartment building.

He said that a construction contract valuing $300 million would be awarded soon for the project located in Amman’s effluent Abdoon district.

On the Marsa Zayed mixed-use project, which will redevelop 3.2 million square metres areas in the Aqaba Port and adjoining areas into tourism hotspot over the next two decades costing $10 billion, he said infrastructure will be completed in August at Al Raha village, in the phase one of the project. The project will include residential units, hotels, berths for yachts as well as a modern port for cruise liners. Shopping centres, cafes and other amenities would be part of the Marsa Zayed development, he said, and adding that superstructure works on the project will be awarded in the second quarter of the year.

The Shaikh Zayed Masjid, which is under construction to accommodate 2,000 Muslims, would be completed and handed over in next 10-12 months, he said.

Al nowais said he was waiting for the government to dismantle the Aqaba Port, phosphate silos and the railway infrastructure, to begin the construction work on the project. He feared that the removal of port infrastructure may take more time.

About the Bab Al Bahr mixed-use project in Morocco’s Rabat city, which is a $450 million largest development in the North African country, Al Nowais said apartments sold earlier were being delivered to their owners at Marina and Riverfront District.

The phase one is 80 per cent sold and 45-50 per cent of the residential units have been booked in the phase two.

In Libya, where a $200 million mixed-use project Al Waha could not be awarded to contractors due to Arab Spring, was ready to be built, Al Nowais said. The project to be built in the heart of Tripoli includes apartment block, hotel and office tower along with a retail podium.

— haseeb@khaleejtimes.com