Union Coop, the largest consumer cooperative in the UAE, saved 6 million UAE dirhams ($1.6 million) from the construction costs of its mixed-use Umm Al Quwain Coop Residential and Commercial project by changing the main contractor, the coop’s CEO said on Thursday.

The 201,707 sq. ft BUA project, located in the emirate of Umm Al Quwain (UAQ), includes a 35,732 sq. ft hypermarket, 15 retail units, 70 residential apartments and a total of 233 parking spaces.

Khalid Humaid Bin Diban Al Falasi said the Coop reduced the total project cost from 52 million dirhams ($14.2 million) to 46 million dirhams ($12.5 million), a reduction of 11 percent, by changing the project contractor while maintaining the same standard specifications.

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Rendering of Union Coop’s $12.5 million Umm Al Quwain Coop Residential and Commercial project

“This comes in order to facilitate the progress of administrative operations, which ultimately will reflect positively on the shareholders and contribute to optimising the financial and technical resources,” he said.

The name of the new contractor wasn’t disclosed.

Currently, the construction work on the project, that would provide up to three months strategic commodity stocks for Umm Al Quwain, is 7 percent complete.

“The preliminary and excavation works for project has already been completed,” said Al Falasi, adding that the project is on track for completion in the second quarter of 2021.

The concrete casting for the main building is scheduled to begin in August while electromechanical works will start in September, according to the project schedule shared by the Coop. The handover is scheduled for May 2021, it said.

Union Coop had awarded the main construction contract for the UAQ project to Al Aber Contracting with an expected completion date of December 2020, according to a September 2019 press statement posed on its website.

Union Coop achieved a net profit of 512.88 million dirhams ($139.6 million) in 2019, up 10 percent from 2018.

(Writing by Anoop Menon; Editing by Seban Scaria)

( anoop.menon@refinitiv.com )

#UnionCoop #Hypermarket #UmmAlQuwain

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