Work has restarted on the unfinished Jumeirah Golf Estates property development, home to the final leg of the Race to Dubai golf tournament.
The residential luxury project, said to be nine times the size of Hyde Park in London, was designed to have golf courses named after the four elements - earth, water, wind and fire - but only two have opened.
Some owners have protested they have been unable to move into their multimillion-dirham villas because the infrastructure, including water and electricity, is not ready. Other villas have yet to be completed.
"The Government of Dubai has committed to providing significant financial support to Jumeirah Golf Estates," Nakheel, the developer, said yesterday. "In turn, we are committed to managing and delivering this key project for Dubai. Our contractors have recommenced work at the development. We are liaising with all Jumeirah Golf Estates customers in relation to the project's progress."
Nakheel said it had been appointed by the Dubai Government "to manage and deliver the Jumeirah Golf Estates project, with over 306 homes scheduled for completion in 2012".
It was announced last year that Nakheel would receive US$8 billion (Dh29.38bn) to finish near-term projects under a restructuring proposal presented in March by Dubai World, its parent company.
"It's certainly positive news that there's a strong commitment to get it going," said Matthew Green, the head of research and consultancy at CB Richard Ellis in Dubai.
"It was always going to be a development which would be in the spotlight," added Mr Green. "I think it's important certainly from the government standpoint that they should get this moving again and for the next tournament hopefully we're going to start to see some more completed properties there."
The Earth golf course, designed by former champion golfer Greg Norman, opened late 2009 at the Jumeirah Golf Estates, while the Fire course, also designed by the Australian, opened at the beginning of last year.
Golf courses are widely considered to be amenities that increase the prices of surrounding property.
A number of golf projects were launched by developers in Dubai before the downturn in the property market, including the Tiger Woods Dubai, which was planned to be surrounded by 22 palaces and 75 mansions. To date just a few of the holes have been shaped and grassed, and the future of the development remains uncertain. The planned 510-hectare Golf City development slated to be part of Dubailand was to have five courses and hundreds of villas.
Nakheel's projects include Jumeirah Village, Jumeirah Park, Jumeirah Heights Clusters, The World archipelago, Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira.
Mr Green said there was a strong likelihood there would be more such announcements of resumption of work on some of Nakheel's unfinished projects in the coming months.
rbundhun@thenational.ae
if you go
The flights
Fly direct to Kutaisi with Flydubai from Dh925 return, including taxes. The flight takes 3.5 hours. From there, Svaneti is a four-hour drive. The driving time from Tbilisi is eight hours.
The trip
The cost of the Svaneti trip is US$2,000 (Dh7,345) for 10 days, including food, guiding, accommodation and transfers from and to Tbilisi or Kutaisi. This summer the TCT is also offering a 5-day hike in Armenia for $1,200 (Dh4,407) per person. For further information, visit www.transcaucasiantrail.org/en/hike/
MATCH INFO
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Mubadala World Tennis Championship 2018 schedule
Thursday December 27
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- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
