Wednesday, Jun 20, 2012
Abu Dhabi - The Tourism Development & Investment Company has added another hotel to its portfolio with the official opening of Eastern Mangroves, operated by Anantara, on Wednesday evening.
“It’s a very strategic hotel for us,” said Ahmed Al Fahim, Executive Director of Marketing, Communications, Sales & Leasing at the TDIC, adding that the hotel’s location is its biggest selling point.
Situated along a 1.2 kilometers stretch of mangrove reserves overlooking the capital’s skyline, Eastern Mangroves is a primarily a corporate business hotel with 222 keys. It’s got easy access to the city centre via Al Salam Street.
“We are very lucky with the location especially since it’s facing the mangroves. This is the only property in Abu Dhabi available for public with that view of the mangroves,” Al Fahim said.
Besides the hotel, the project also has a residential and retail component, which are expected to come online in phases between August and end of this year. “We are going to have the entire strip of the community and with residents moving in by the end of the year,” he said.
When asked about how well TDIC properties are doing in an over saturated market for both the residential and hotel markets, Al Fahim said that it’s been beating their expectations.
“In other TDIC properties we saw a lot of demand increase for this kind of properties,” he said. “We launched St. Regis apartments and it was leased, almost 90 per cent of it, within three months which shows that there is still demand in the market even though we hear that there is oversupply.”
“There is demand for quality products and location,” he added.
The Eastern Mangroves Hotel & Spa is the TDIC’s third partnership with Anantara. The hotel management projects occupancy rates of 40 per cent for the first year and to be well over 50 per cent for the second year.
By Samia Badih Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2012. All rights reserved.
