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Dubai-based Omniyat Group is close to finally handing over properties at The Opus project to investors, founder and chief executive, Mahdi Amjad, said on Tuesday.
Brookfield Multiplex was appointed as contractor for the Zaha Hadid-designed building nine years ago, but a mix of market conditions and technical challenges have meant that it has taken longer to complete than originally anticipated.
"We are handing over the Opus within the next few weeks to investors for fit-out - towards the end of October or the first week of November," Amjad told Zawya at the Cityscape Global real estate exhibition in Dubai.
The building has been completed to shell and core status. Fit-outs of a Me by Melia hotel and many of the office units within are expected to take a further 12 months to finish.
"This is a magnificent milestone for Omniyat," Amjad added. "We've been working on this building for some time and Zaha Hadid buildings have never been easy, but the accomplishment of it, the result that you produce, is phenomenal.
"One of the senior authority members said that this is one of the few buildings where the reality of it looks better than the renders."
Amjad said that work was progressing on its other Dubai schemes, with Anwar at Dubai Maritime City and the Stirling building in Business Bay likely to complete by the end of next year and in the first quarter of 2019, respectively.
A contractor for its Langham Place hotel and serviced residences project in Business Bay is also likely to be appointed this year, with completion due in 2020.
Amjad also revealed it had sold one of the three penthouses at the top of its One Palm development on Palm Jumeirah for 102 million UAE dirhams ($27.7 million).
The sale represented the biggest off-plan apartment sale to complete in the emirate, beating the previous record of 60 million UAE dirhams, the developer said in a press statement.
Amjad added that the 29,800 square feet apartment was sold to a Gulf-based national, but he did not specify from which country.
The company announced that it had topped out the structure at One Palm on Sunday, and that it will now complete in 2018. It was originally a joint venture with Drake & Scull, which sold its stake to Omniyat earlier this year in a bid to raise funds, and had been due to complete this year.
"It is a strategic investor from the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council]," Amjad said. "He's moving into Dubai and it's his permanent home."
Amjad said that the sale was a vindication of Omniyat's strategy of building exclusive, super-prime properties in the city, adding that the buyer was a sophisticated owner who already owned properties in New York and Hong Kong.
"Even in 2017, we are achieving the highest price per square foot of anywhere in the neighbouring [areas]," he said.
The company had previously said that it had a 180 million UAE dirham apartment for sale at the development. Amjad explained that this option had been available by combining two of the three penthouses. This could still happen with the remaining two apartments, he said, or they could remain subdivided and sell separately.
“We are in discussion for those two other penthouses as well. We have two offers that have been made - one family would like to combine them, one family would like to separate them. It's a very bespoke product,” he said.
For more data, analytics, tools and news on projects in the Middle East visit the Thomson Reuters Projects portal
© Zawya 2017
Brookfield Multiplex was appointed as contractor for the Zaha Hadid-designed building nine years ago, but a mix of market conditions and technical challenges have meant that it has taken longer to complete than originally anticipated.
"We are handing over the Opus within the next few weeks to investors for fit-out - towards the end of October or the first week of November," Amjad told Zawya at the Cityscape Global real estate exhibition in Dubai.
The building has been completed to shell and core status. Fit-outs of a Me by Melia hotel and many of the office units within are expected to take a further 12 months to finish.
"This is a magnificent milestone for Omniyat," Amjad added. "We've been working on this building for some time and Zaha Hadid buildings have never been easy, but the accomplishment of it, the result that you produce, is phenomenal.
"One of the senior authority members said that this is one of the few buildings where the reality of it looks better than the renders."
Amjad said that work was progressing on its other Dubai schemes, with Anwar at Dubai Maritime City and the Stirling building in Business Bay likely to complete by the end of next year and in the first quarter of 2019, respectively.
A contractor for its Langham Place hotel and serviced residences project in Business Bay is also likely to be appointed this year, with completion due in 2020.
Amjad also revealed it had sold one of the three penthouses at the top of its One Palm development on Palm Jumeirah for 102 million UAE dirhams ($27.7 million).
The sale represented the biggest off-plan apartment sale to complete in the emirate, beating the previous record of 60 million UAE dirhams, the developer said in a press statement.
Amjad added that the 29,800 square feet apartment was sold to a Gulf-based national, but he did not specify from which country.
The company announced that it had topped out the structure at One Palm on Sunday, and that it will now complete in 2018. It was originally a joint venture with Drake & Scull, which sold its stake to Omniyat earlier this year in a bid to raise funds, and had been due to complete this year.
"It is a strategic investor from the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council]," Amjad said. "He's moving into Dubai and it's his permanent home."
Amjad said that the sale was a vindication of Omniyat's strategy of building exclusive, super-prime properties in the city, adding that the buyer was a sophisticated owner who already owned properties in New York and Hong Kong.
"Even in 2017, we are achieving the highest price per square foot of anywhere in the neighbouring [areas]," he said.
The company had previously said that it had a 180 million UAE dirham apartment for sale at the development. Amjad explained that this option had been available by combining two of the three penthouses. This could still happen with the remaining two apartments, he said, or they could remain subdivided and sell separately.
“We are in discussion for those two other penthouses as well. We have two offers that have been made - one family would like to combine them, one family would like to separate them. It's a very bespoke product,” he said.
For more data, analytics, tools and news on projects in the Middle East visit the Thomson Reuters Projects portal
© Zawya 2017
