Dubai, the tiny, wealthy emirate on the shores of the Persian Gulf, is known for temperatures over 100 degrees, construction sites and cranes dotting the skyline, a large building shaped like a sail jutting out over the waterfront and man-made islands.
Some New York developers and architects, including Donald Trump, are heading halfway around the world to get in on the boom.
Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates, has experienced a construction surge as it shifts from an oil-based economy to a tourism-based economy. Government support for developers, as well as relaxed land-use policies, have sped the frenetic pace of construction in the state of 860,000 people. As the boom echoes through the desert, though, building codes still have a bit of catching up to do with other countries.
Experts estimate that 18 percent of the world’s heavy construction cranes are currently located in Dubai. The dominant image is rows of small, older buildings being replaced with gleaming glass commercial and residential towers. The Burj al-Arab, the world’s largest hotel, juts out into the sea, designed to look like the sail of a dhow, an Arabian boat. The man-made Palm Islands and World Islands dot the sea, awaiting pending development.
Donald Trump Jr., who is overseeing the construction of the Palm Trump International Hotel and Tower on Palm Jumeirah Island for the Trump Organization, a project first announced last fall, said his family decided to build in Dubai because of a comprehensive pro-development program created by the Dubai government.
“Dubai, for that part of the world, has done a good job in building up the tourism and the airlines,” Trump said. “It connects to Europe and the rest of the world.”
The Trump hotel is slated as the flagship project on the Palm Islands, part of a series of islands designed to stretch out in the Arabian Sea off the Dubai coast in the shape of a palm tree. Working in partnership with Nakheel LLC, a Dubai-based developer who has undertaken more than $30 billion in projects there, the joint condominium/ hotel project will bring 500 apartments to the islands, along with hotel space, a health club and swimming pools.
Trump said his family was introduced to Nakheel and decided to build the 58-story building after investigating the economic development landscape in Dubai. New roads and a larger airport have helped facilitate tourism, and the government has undertaken an increased focus on tourism marketing internationally.
Trump also said the high-end clientele of tourists from Europe, Asia and the Middle East, who flock to Dubai’s beaches, were a draw. Trump cited his previous success with hotel clients from these regions in the past, borne out by the high purchase rates of international buyers at Trump projects in New York.
Trump added that the government, which helped obtain permits for the project, has relaxed land-use policies in general, which he said was a refreshing break from the New York City process of obtaining approval from several layers of city government before a shovel enters the ground. While the process is relaxed, code standards are strong and the buildings are structurally sound, Trump added.
Still, Dubai is also catching up to other parts of the world when it comes to building tall.
Architect George Efstathiou, a managing partner with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), based in New York and Chicago, is overseeing his firm’s six pending projects in Dubai. This includes the Burj Dubai, which is slated to be the world’s tallest building when it is completed in 2008, at a height of more than 2,296 feet. The building is to be mainly residential, with some commercial space and hotel rooms.
Efstathiou said that his firm and other American firms have been recruited to Dubai because of their expertise in the construction of larger buildings, as Dubai does not have a history of building tall structures. The firm’s portfolio includes the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center, both in Chicago.
“Their local codes do not address tall buildings,” Efstathiou said. “They will need to change their codes or adopt the international codes. We’ve been taking the international building codes and presenting that to local authorities. We present them and use new concepts.”
SOM is also working on the construction of the Infinity tower in Dubai, which will be the world’s first purely twisted tower, and the Capricorn II office and apartment tower, along with several office towers.
Meanwhile, Trump said his family is looking to develop another hotel in Dubai, along with residential buildings and a golf resort. It’s also looking to develop in the Dubai Marina, which has been cited as one of the biggest development projects in the entire emirate. Both Efstathiou and Trump predicted that the Dubai development will continue in the years to come.
“Your only limits are your imagination,” Trump said, “and the laws of physics.”