The UAE developer Arada has awarded a major contract to build Sharjah’s largest fitness centre at the company's Dh24 billion ($6.53bn) Aljada master development.
The contract, valued at Dh75 million ($20m), was awarded to Dubai-based RAQ Contracting, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
The construction of the 65,000-square-foot fitness centre at Madar family entertainment district within Aljada is expected to be complete in 12 months. Work on the project began in May.
The gym will be operated by Wellfit, a fitness brand founded by Arada in 2021.
“Wellfit is rapidly establishing itself as the UAE’s premier fitness and wellness brand, and this … new fitness hub is in line with our mission to enable healthy and active lifestyles for everyone in both Aljada and Sharjah,” Ahmed Alkhoshaibi, group chief executive of Arada, said.
The contract also covers the construction of all buildings within the second phase of Madar as well as an 18,000-square-foot trampoline park that will be managed by Australian brand Bounce.
The award of the new contract comes as Arada, a joint venture between KBW Investments ― a company controlled by Saudi Arabia’s Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed ― and Sharjah-based Basma Group continue to launch new projects, as the UAE’s property market bounces from the coronavirus pandemic following government initiatives such as residency permits for retirees and remote workers, as well as the expansion of the 10-year golden visa programme.
Earlier this month, the company unveiled the third phase of its Dh8bn residential project named Masaar in Sharjah amid strong investor demand.
The new fitness centre contains separate men’s and women’s gyms, assessment areas and studios, with space allocated for Mixed Martial Arts, yoga and a special studio dedicated to children, according to the company.
The facility will also have a cafe and a sporting goods store.
Madar at Aljada was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. The first phase of Madar contains the Aljada Discovery Centre, the Zad food truck district, a free-to-enter drive-in cinema, a children’s adventure playground, an indoor events space, an outdoor amphitheatre and the Aljada Skate Park.
The second phase of the project consists of the second and third extensions to the Aljada Skate Park, additional parking space and a further 460,000 square feet of parkland, as well as the Wellfit gym and trampoline park.
Spread over a 24-million-square-foot area, Aljada is Sharjah’s largest residential project with a number of residential districts, as well as retail, hospitality, entertainment, sporting and educational units and a business park. In total, Aljada will have 25,000 homes when the project is completed by 2025.
The developer, which is targeting 25 per cent sales growth in 2022 to Dh3bn on the back of the UAE’s property market recovery from the pandemic, raised $350m when it issued a five-year sukuk earlier this month. The dollar-denominated Islamic bond is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Starring: Saja Kilani, Clara Khoury, Motaz Malhees
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Rating: 4/5
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
The Two Popes
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce
Four out of five stars
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The biog
Favourite film: Motorcycle Dairies, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Kagemusha
Favourite book: One Hundred Years of Solitude
Holiday destination: Sri Lanka
First car: VW Golf
Proudest achievement: Building Robotics Labs at Khalifa University and King’s College London, Daughters
Driverless cars or drones: Driverless Cars
European arms
Known EU weapons transfers to Ukraine since the war began: Germany 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles. Luxembourg 100 NLAW anti-tank weapons, jeeps and 15 military tents as well as air transport capacity. Belgium 2,000 machine guns, 3,800 tons of fuel. Netherlands 200 Stinger missiles. Poland 100 mortars, 8 drones, Javelin anti-tank weapons, Grot assault rifles, munitions. Slovakia 12,000 pieces of artillery ammunition, 10 million litres of fuel, 2.4 million litres of aviation fuel and 2 Bozena de-mining systems. Estonia Javelin anti-tank weapons. Latvia Stinger surface to air missiles. Czech Republic machine guns, assault rifles, other light weapons and ammunition worth $8.57 million.
