Sheffield Holdings plans two new Dubai towers worth $326mn
Project to be announced in the early half of 2015, senior executive says
Sheffield Holdings, the developer of the second-tallest building in Dubai, is planning two additional towers valued at a combined $326 million, according to a senior executive.
The developer, which is behind the Marina 101 building, has bought one additional plot and is in the process of buying a second, both in the Business Bay area of Dubai.
Patrick El Khoury, chief operating officer at Sheffield Holdings Limited, said that the combined value of the two hotel-apartment projects will be around $326.6 million.
“Within the first half of next year, we will be able to announce it,” he said. “We will be doing some projects similar to Marina 101 in terms of hotel apartments or hotels themselves. And we are looking at the Business Bay area.”
El Khoury spoke to Big Project ME on the sidelines of the Cityscape Global 2014 event in Dubai, which started today.
He said it was too early for the company to have spoken to banks about the new projects, but said he was confident the company would have access to finance given that its $326.6 million current project, Marina 101, is nearing completion.
“Once you have a $326 million project done, you can see how easy the expansion would be later on. We have credibility with the banks; we have credibility with the investors and users. So I don’t think this would be a problem,” said Mr El Khoury.
The executive ruled out an initial public offering of the privately-owned company “for the time being”.
Units in the Marina 101 building are due for handover early next year. At 425 metres high it is the second-tallest tower in Dubai after the Burj Khalifa.
The tower, in Dubai Marina, includes a 5-star hotel, 420 hotel apartments – of which all but nine have been sold – and three-bedroom apartments and penthouses.
The residential apartments were launched to the market this month, with the top-of-the-range units costing up to $10.8 million.
“I believe in a month or two we will be sold out,” Mr El Khoury said of the apartments.
The top level – on floor 101 – will be a lounge or bar serviced by a separate lift. El Khoury said he expects 2,000 visitors a day to the building’s various food and beverage outlets.
