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The enigma of Dubai’s construction
bustle is, it never stalls in any
boom or bust economic cycle. Worries
of a slump or external turmoil do
not seem to plague this industry,
one of the bedrocks of the UAE
economy, particularly so in the
light of the added weight given to
rapid non-oil diversification. |
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It
may be puzzling for an outsider to behold
the beehives of construction sites teeming
with activity, but undeniably they
are reassuring sights speaking of
an internal economy in fine fettle.
“We have not seen any slowdown
yet. Major projects appear not to
have suffered. We are still bidding
for many projects," says Nasr
A. Nasr, project director for Al
Habtoor Engineering Enterprises.
Nasr should know. He has been at the
helm of many sterling projects in his long
stint of 22 years, the last seven of which
with a company that has cornered a large
share of the construction pie in the
Emirates. The
lastest in Al habtoor's distinctive
portfolio in Joint Venture with Murray
& Roberts is the Al Jaber Complex that
will add another proud icon building to
the skyline of the Sheikh Zayed Road where
Dubai's corporate heart seems to throb of
late.
No doubt Al Jaber Complex - the twin-tower
residential, commercial and hotel
complexis another resplendent feather in
the Joint Venture's cap. This
43-storey building is not going to poke
the sky on Sheikh Zayed Road in tall
ruffian energy, but in some secret
ethereal negotiation will seek to coax the
skies in its unique aesthetic blend. 
"The complex will have many firsts in
the UAE. For instance we are using the
biggest hydraulic self-climbing form work
system for this and it is the first time
it is being used in the UAE,” says Nasr,
who has been handpicked to oversee the
project as its director, along with a
highly experienced team of engineers
headed by Andrew Durrant as the project
manager.
Work on the Al Jaber complex started on
May 19 and though the official completion
period for the construction is 640 days
from the date of commencement, Nasr says
he has put the project on fast-track
targeting to complete it ahead of the
scheduled deadline. “We are going
extremely tight paced on this project. We
are in full swing now. My endeavor is to
complete the project ahead of the
scheduled time,” says Nasr. The project
employs 900 people now and at the peak of
the construction the workforce is expected
to climb to some 1, 500 people.
The Dhs 300 plus-million project, which
will leap 200 meters skywards, is another
successful offspring of the joint venture
between Al Habtoor Engineering and South
Africa’s Murray & Roberts.
The joint venture, Al Habtoor
Engineering Murray
& Roberts (HMR) evolved in 1994
and ever since then the two companies have
partnered many challenging projects in the
UAE.
One of them is of course is the
sail-shaped Burj Al Arab, the world’s
tallest hotel, rising to the sky at 321
meters up from the blue waters of the
Arabian Sea. The joint venture, according
to Al Habtoor, is the most enduring and
symbiotic partnership bagging a number of
contracts in the Emirates.
“We complement each other in management
and style. We utilize both our resources
to the full extent.
Being a prominent player in the UAE,
Al Habtoor has local knowledge and
expertise which combines with the
expertise of Murray &Roberts,” says
Nasr.
The Joint Venture has now expanded its
operations to other countries in the
Middle East having opened Regional Offices
in Cairo and Doha.
We are currently engaged in the
construction of major Building Project in
Egypt and in addition we have been
tendering for other projects in Bahrain,
Kuwait, Oman, Syria, Palestine and Iraq.
“We have been bidding for projects
outside the UAE. For instance, we have bid
for projects in Qatar, Syria and Bahrain
now,” adds Nasr.
Back to home turf, the Al Jaber complex
will be up and running by 2003
coinciding with the Dubai’s biggest
coup of holding the annual meeting of
the Bretton Wood institutions, the World
Bank and the International Monetary
Fund. (IMF).
The complex owned by the Abu
Dhabi-based Al Jaber Investment headed
by Obeid Al Jaber and represented by
Roya International has Mace
International for project management
while Norr Group are the consultants.
Al Jaber Complex will house the Hong
Kong based Shangri-la Hotel, the first
in the UAE. The hotel will have 300
rooms in all comprising 27 single
executive suites, eight executive
suites, 242 single rooms, 22 suites and
one Presidential suite.
The complex will have furnished and
unfurnished apartments. Among the
furnished apartments, there will be
three-bedroom and two-bedroom
apartments, studios and one-bedroom
apartments. The unfurnished segment will
have four-bedroom apartments,
three-bedroom apartments, and
two-bedroom and one-bedroom apartments.
At different levels, the complex will
also have swimming pools and health
clubs sprinkled about.
The project contract covers two
basements and ground and the main body
of the 43-storey twin-tower building
along with four basements plus ground
and an 11-storey car park linked by a
bridge and tunnel. The whole building is
in reinforced concrete tubular structure
with insitu slabs to level four above
which will be pre-cast slabs. The car
park will be re-inforced concrete column
with flat slab structure.
There will also be a bridge from
level nine of the car park to level four
of the tower.
The project will utilize 16,000 metric
tones of reinforcement steel and 60,000
cubic meters of concrete. Over 21,000
square meters of curtain wall and 25,000
square meters of polished granite will
complete the external façade of the
complex. It is also worth mentioning,
that the formwork to be used is
estimated at more than 177,000 square
meters and the hollow blocks at 1.1
million square meters.
Lower levels of the complex have been
earmarked for hotel support while
furnished and unfurnished apartments
will occupy intermediate levels. The
Shangri-la Hotel will occupy all the
higher floors upto level 43. The rest of
the building upwards will be used as
mechanical floors apart from housing
recreational facilities like health
clubs. The whole complex will have 20
lifts in all.
“The elevation of the complex will
be different from any other building on
the Sheikh Zayed Road,” says Nasr. The
external elevation of the complex will
alternate between projecting strips of
granite cladding immediately followed by
recessed curtain walling so that there
is a unique elegance to the building
obscuring its concrete and steel heart.
Nasr says the joint venture is not going
to cease its focus on the complex as
soon as the project is completed. It
will stake a claim for the fit- out
pitching against other rivals. “We
will bid for the fit-out,’ emphasizes
Nasr. The joint venture had bagged
contracts for fit-outs in many projects
it completed earlier, such as Burj Al
Arab and the New Shaikh Rashid Terminal
at the Dubai International Airport.
Al Jaber Complex puts another emphasis
on the health of the construction
industry in the UAE despite the
inclement global economic climate. In
fact, there are many more projects,
which the joint venture is preparing to
vie for in the UAE, neck-to-neck with
other construction majors.
“I would say that the construction
business in the UAE is normal. There
could be phases when the activities are
a little dull. That is because there is
a time lag between investment and
generation of revenue,” says Nasr.
Putting its best foot forward the joint
venture is readying itself to bid for
some of the prestigious projects, which
are expected to boost the established
status of the Emirates as the most
preferred tourist and investment
destination in the Middle East.
“We would like to carve a piece of the
Palm Island cake, phase two of the
Marina Towers and the upcoming Dubai
Airport expansion projects among
others,” says Nasr.
Al Habtoor Engineering Enterprises have
been closely associated with the destiny
of the UAE’s real estate and property
development. For instance, one of the
major projects currently under
construction, with Murray & Roberts,
is the new Head Quarters building of the
National Bank of Abu Dhabi in Abu Dhabi,
which when completed will be the tallest
building in the capital. It is said to
be one of the most ambitious project
undertaken in the city.
Only recently the joint venture
completed the Dhs 225 million Marina
Mall, a shopping mall that is now
attracting hordes of shoppers. The new
Carrefour, which opened recently in
Sharjah, is another highlight of the
joint venture’s spreading roots in the
construction business in the Northern
Emirates. Other proud credentials
include the polyethylene plant in Ruwais
for the Italian firm, Tecnimont, which
incidentally is the first foray of the
joint venture into the civil industry
segment.
The ADNOC Group of Companies
H.Q., a twin tower project on the Abu
Dhabi Corniche worth Dhs 250 million,
which is to be completed in 2003 is
another upcoming project, which speaks
volumes for the clout of Habtoor –
Murray & Roberts in the domestic
construction industry.
To take a recap of the plumes in the cap
of the joint venture, the Sheikh Rashid
Terminal Concourse, which opened in
April last year and that can handle 20
million passengers every year, was its
baby. Other highlights of the joint
venture include the commercial tower
Kendah House.
To continue, the Holiday center Complex,
the 600-room Jumeirah Beach Hotel, the
ship-shaped Customs Headquarters and
more recently the futuristic Dubai
Internet City buildings and the Dusit
Dubai hotel have been from the Al
Habtoor Engineering Enterprises
portfolio too.
For Al Habtoor Engineering Enterprises (HEE),
the founding company of the Al Habtoor
Group established in 1971, it has been a
long road cobbled with success. It has
managed through the bust and booms, the
crude price slump and the mercurial rise
and war and peace. Experts say that
businesses that manage through crises
are made of steel and clairvoyance and
it is not pompous to say that of Al
Habtoor Engineering!
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