Gulf Construction Online

UAE Focus

Update

01 June 2010

Community centre taking shape
CONSTRUCTION has started on the first of two community centres within Dubai’s Victory Heights, which on completion will offer residents a wide range of recreational facilities, including swimming pools, children’s play areas, basketball courts and barbecue areas. Both centres are designed to play a key role in fostering a strong community spirit within the Victory Heights golfing development, which surrounds the award-winning The Els Club golf course.

Victory Heights itself has achieved almost 50 per cent handover with 80 per cent of villas in Phase One having been completed.
Construction of the second community centre is due to start this month. Both centres are being built by Proscape.

Concrete flooring in spotlight
CONSTRUCTION industry specialists will discuss the latest in concrete flooring solutions at a seminar this month hosted by Fars Al Mazrooei Contracting, a leading UAE-based contractor for fast-track projects.
Taking place in Dubai on June 23 at the Emirates Towers Hotel, the seminar will be attended by top industry leaders and decision-makers for the logistics, warehousing and flooring industries and cover topics such as design, pre-construction planning, logistics centres, warehouses, high tolerance and heavy-duty industrial floors as well as design and construction guidelines.
In addition to concrete flooring solutions, Fars Al Mazrooei offers turnkey design-and-built capabilities for green building logistic centre/warehouse projects.

MAG 218 tower ready for handover
THE Dh450-million ($122-million) MAG 218 residential tower in Dubai Marina is ready for handover, underlining the demand for mid-priced housing.
Consisting of 555 apartments spread over 66 floors, almost 90 per cent of MAG 218 was sold out within months of its 2006 launch, with many investors initially paying an average of Dh750,000 to 850,000 for a one-bedroom apartment.
The tower, comprising 333 one-bedroom, 222 two-bedroom apartments and six retail outlets, comes complete with 572 covered car-parking spaces and an outdoor Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Memon’s Champions forge ahead
MEMON Investments said it has passed the halfway mark on the construction of two of its prime residential developments in Dubai Sports City – Champions Tower II (CT II) and Champions Tower III (CT III).
Construction has reached the ninth floor in CT II, with the developer preparing for the next slab and block work on the fourth floor, while the 10th floor in CT III has already been cast. The developer is now looking to award contracts related to the finishing and facility management to credible partners in the UAE.

Tameer’s Elite project on target
TAMEER Holding Investment said the construction work at its Dh1.7-billion ($462.7-million) Elite Residence project in Dubai Marina was on track with Cladtech International commencing the cladding work on the 91-storey tower. Once completed in 2011, the landmark development at a height of 380 m will become one of the world’s tallest residential towers and will house around 1,500 residents.

The One Tower work on target
AL YASAT Holdings has said that it has completed work on the 22nd floor of the 47-storey The One Tower commercial project at Tecom C on Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road. On completion, the tower will feature more than 380,000 sq ft of executive offices, a business centre, more than 16,000 sq ft of showroom space, restaurants, a health club and a penthouse.
Lead contractor Al Shafar General Contracting currently has 900 staff working on The One Tower.

RWI names distributor
RUBBER World Industries (RWI), a leading provider of closed-cell rubber insulation in the UAE, has appointed Leminar Air-conditioning Company as the exclusive distributor of its Gulf-O-flex rubber insulation for HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) applications in the UAE.
Following the appointment, Leminar revealed its goal to secure Dh30 million ($8 million) in annual sales in the UAE. RWI’s insulation products has been utilised in recent projects such as the prestigious Al Raha Beach development, Saadiyat Island project and Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.
In addition to expanding its distribution network, the company is also undertaking steps to increase its current production capacity, including a Dh30-million expansion plan to hit its production target of 3,600 containers per year by 2013.

Palm Utilities seeks new solutions
PALM Utilities, a leading private company that provides integrated sustainable utility solutions, has outlined new strategies to help solve the long-term water challenges UAE may face.
Inherently, these integrate the latest advances in energy utilisation, nano and molecular technologies as well as innovative water reuse and recycling systems. This will be crucial as the company seeks to pursue various large-scale water desalination and wastewater treatment and reuse projects, helping address the region’s long-term water utility issues.
Palm Utilities has noted that the GCC, which already accounts for more than half of the 11,000 desalination facilities worldwide, expects an eight per cent annual growth of desalination plants as water demand continues to increase sharply among Gulf countries.

Wrench to be launched in Middle East
COLLABORATION, Management and Control Solutions (CMCS) has announced a strategic partnership deal with Wrench Solutions, a leading end-to-end enterprise software firm based in India catering to engineering and manufacturing industry.
CMCS will introduce Wrench’s automated project management solutions in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region. “The launch of Wrench products in the Mena region will revolutionise the way organisations manage their project lifecycle,” said Bassam Samman, CEO and founder of CMCS.

Shaikhani eyes $16m deals
SHAIKHANI Contracting, a leading contracting company in the UAE, said the company was aiming to secure domestic contracts worth Dh60 million ($16.3 million) this year.
The company is part of the Shaikhani Group, a multi-billion-dollar international business conglomerate with interests in real estate development, trading, manufacturing and IT. The company was recently awarded a contract to undertake the construction of private villas in the Al Khawaneej Area in Dubai.
According to Rizwan Shaikhani, managing director, Shaikhani Contracting, the company is aiming to kickstart construction of several new projects in the second half of this year primarily focusing on residential and commercial villas and townhouse projects.

Adnec scores hat trick
ABU Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (Adnec) has won its third consecutive award in a month for its green initiatives. It won the ‘Green’ Award at the Middle East Events Awards held at the Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai last month. The latest accolade follows the ‘Best International Venue’ won by Adnec and the ‘Best UK Venue’ won by Adnec-owned ExCeL London, at the Exhibition News Awards, held at the Lancaster Hotel in London.