Under the agreement with the Al Habtoor Group, HLG will be responsible for the construction of what is set to become the largest integrated hotel complex in the Middle East. The development comprises a five-level podium, a 36-storey tower and a 25-storey tower within a total gross floor area of 350,000m2.
There will be 1,600 hotel rooms, spread between three hotels, a Las Vegas-style ‘aqua theatre’, a French provincial-inspired garden, restuarants and cafes.
The new development will be located on the site of the existing Metropolitan Hotel - Dubai’s oldest hotel – on Sheikh Zayed Road at the southernmost point of the Old Town development, which includes the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall.
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Demolition of the existing Metropolitan is scheduled to start at the end of March with early construction works likely to begin in June. The development is due for completion in the second half of 2016.
The HLG team has spent the some six months working with the team from the Al Habtoor Group to finalise the contract for the project. HLG CEO and managing director Laurie Voyer that said he was delighted to have reached agreement. “We have successfully completed a number of projects for the Al Habtoor Group in the past – including the Habtoor Grand Beach Resort & Spa and Metropolitan Palace Hotel - and have always maintained a good working relationship with them,” he said. “We look forward to working with them again to create a development that will be a landmark for not only Dubai, but the entire Middle East.
He added that HLG continues to pursue its strategy of diversification. “We are continuing our push into new geographies such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait,” he said. “While the Habtoor Palace is a Dubai building project, our future growth will come from major infrastructure projects in markets outside the UAE, particularly Qatar and Saudi Arabia.”
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