Friday, Sep 22, 2006

Gulf News

Dubai: A group of UAE investors has launched Emirates Flag, a cluster of 21 commercial buildings worth Dh7 billion to be set up in Ras Al Khaimah that will bear the UAE flag on the rooftops.

Dubai-based High Rise Real Estate, Dream Industrial Park FZCO and A&A Investment Holding have formed a holding company, Emirates Flag Free Zone Co, to set up the Dh7 billion project at the Dream Industrial Park in the Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone, officials said.

The project will be offered to investors on a 99-year lease hold. However, developers said, they are negotiating with the Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone (RAKFTZ) to obtain freehold status for the project's residential components.

"We want the Emirates Flag project to be the first icon of the UAE, representing the unity and dynamism, of this country. This project will put Ras Al Khaimah on the global map," Faisal Ali Moosa, managing partner of High Rise Real Estate, told the media yesterday.

The project, to be completed in three phases by 2015, will have seven blocks representing seven emirates each comprising three buildings that will include residential, commercial, office, retail facilities as well as a five-star hotel on the banks of the Arabian Gulf.

Facilities

Each residential tower will face the sea and will consist of 160, one bedroom flats of 800 square feet each, 120 studio flats of 450 square feet each and 120, two-bed flats of 1,200 square feet respectively. The residential towers boast of unparalleled vistas of the sea horizon and the adjacent Ras Al Khaimah coast line.

The middle building in every block is a five-star hotel, comprising of 450 rooms, fully equipped with retail outlets, health clubs and banquet halls. Each hotel is themed to reflect the history and the spirit of the emirate it represents, each imposing hotel covers more than 300,000 square feet.

Each office tower has 25 floors and a total built up area of 300,000 square feet, and offers a full service business centre in each tower, and retail shops. The lobby of every office tower is designed to be unique with own identity matching with the theme of the project. It will be fully self sufficient, intelligent community, complete with restaurants and retail areas all offering a direct view of the marina.

Developers said, financing will be done through a combination of debt, equity and bank loan.

"We are also planning to set up a real estate fund for investors as well as engage international banks to finance the project," said Moosa.

"Part financing also will be done through pre-sale of the units, which we are going to start in two months time."

Construction of the project's first phase is set to start in the first quarter of 2007 and will be completed in three years.

"We will invite bids for the first phase by the end of the year to be able to start construction in time early next year," he said.

One of the amazing aspects of this project is that about 20 per cent of the Emirates Flag project is built in the sea bridging land and sea, this provides office, homes and hotel rooms in the development fantastic vistas of the RAK coast line.

The project also boasts a large manmade marina built to moor yachts and other boats.

Gulf News 2006. All rights reserved.