An artist’s impression of Ajman Uptown.
Upmarket Uptown
01 November 2009
WORK on Ajman Uptown, a Dh3.5 billion ($953.7 million) community project, is on schedule, according to the developer Sweet Homes Holdings (SHH).
Substructure work has been completed on all the 1,504 villas of the development, and superstructure work is at different stages of construction, says Fawad Sattar Dero, managing director of SHH, a UAE-based master developer and multi-service provider to the real estate sector.
Spread over 4 million sq m of land that is directly accessible from the Emirates Road and adjacent to Emirates City, the project comprises ground-plus-two-storey villas and townhouses featuring two, three, and four-bedrooms and exclusive five-bedroom VIP villas.
The development will also include two office towers – namely Freesia and Gardenia – and five mixed-use luxury towers – Heliconia, Jatropha, Iris, Kentia and Ludisia – a hotel and hotel apartment building, a shopping mall, mini-mall, hospital, a health club, two mosques, a school, landscaping as well as complete networks for roads, electricity, water and other infrastructure.
The towers within the community development will be connected by a single 1.15-km pedestrian pathway and will each incorporate retail shops, offices and residential units.
Construction work on one of the mixed-use towers – Kentia – has begun and excavation is under way for the shopping mall. Simultaneously, infrastructure work such as levelling, filling and compaction of the roads and utility-related work is also in progress.
“The work on the villas is progressing at a fast pace and is expected to be completed by the end of next year. The shopping mall and Kentia are scheduled for completion in 2011. Work on the remaining buildings will start next year,” he says.
“The design of the project has been inspired by French architecture and is one of its kind in Ajman. More than a third of the area has been dedicated to parks and recreation facilities,” Dero comments.
Adnan Saffarini Consulting Office is the main consultant. SHH has taken on all aspects of development within Ajman Uptown and has employed no outside subcontractors, with its construction arm – Sweet Homes General Contracting (SHGC) undertaking the Dh2.2-billion ($598 million) main contract, as well as the project’s initial groundworks. SHGC, a division of the Sweet Engineering Homes Group, is responsible for all the construction works, including the foundation works and finishing.
Ajman Uptown is among the 122 developments approved by the Ajman Real Estate Regulatory Agency (ARRA).
“With its prime location and its distinction of being the first freehold villa and townhouse community in the emirate, Ajman Uptown has become a highly sought-after project among investors. We are achieving significant milestones in the construction of this project through our effective construction processes and collaboration with leading industry partners. Our strategy is to leverage this, combined with positive regulatory developments in Ajman, to hit our delivery targets,” concludes Dero.
