An aerial perspective of the site.
The Blue yonder
Oman has entered the league of the bold and beautiful with its ambitious $20 billion Blue City development which aims to offer all that the discerning international tourist and home-owner would look for in a resort or home.
01 February 2006
Oman’s ambitious Blue City project has taken a giant leap forward with the signing of a $1.9 billion deal to launch the first phase of the $20 billion scheme that aims to create a new city at a prime seaside location.
The construction contract was awarded last month to a joint venture between Enka Insaat ve Sanayi AS (Enka), a leading Turkish contractor and Aktor Ate (Aktor), Greece’s largest construction company.
The mega project – the Sultanate’s largest-ever real estate development – is being spearheaded by Oman’s Al Sawadi Investment and Tourism Company (ASIT) and the Bahrain-based AAJ Holdings. The project aims to promote tourism, giving Oman’s economy another dimension to grow in and provide jobs for its unemployed youth.
Mobilisation work on the project is due to start next month (March), according to Professor Fari Akhlaghi, CEO of ReeMoon (the client representative and development management company employed by ASIT and the Phase One project leader). All the tourism-related projects are expected to be completed within five years, he adds.
Phase One of the Blue City is being developed along a coastal strip extending several kilometres and covering 6 sq km. It will include:
• Four hotels – three five-star and one four star – including a golf resort hotel. Each of the hotels will have approximately 200 rooms, private beaches, marinas and comprehensive sports, leisure and wellness facilities;
• Two PGA world-class 18-hole championship golf courses laid out along the southern edge of the creek.
• A tourist village, with a contemporary Arabian suq embracing the opposite side of the creek.
• Around 5,000 villa/apartment units;
• An aquarium;
•A heritage village,
•A shopping complex;
•An amphitheatre;
•A city hall; and
• All associated amenities such as a primary school, a nursery and kindergarten, a health centre, a police station, a post office and a mosque.
Much of the residential space will be available for expatriate ownership on a freehold basis under the recent law, which has opened up the real estate market to foreigners.
The first phase development – which is due for completion by 2012 – is served by a network of broad boulevards and access roads and a total of 12,000 car-parking spaces.
The entire development is targeted for completion in 15 years over 10 phases.
Covering a 34 sq km picturesque site along the Al Sawadi seafront, 100 km northwest of Muscat, the project is being created to house 250,000 people and cater to up to two million tourists per year upon completion in 2020. Blue City will feature tourist resorts as well as extensive education, healthcare and sports facilities, set amidst the most striking landscapes in the Arabian peninsula.
The project site lies framed by two wadis having a total of 15 km of natural sand beach coastline with a generally flat topography: sand dunes to the south and a deep seawater creek to its northeast. The most dominant landmarks are the seven tall rock islands off the main beachhead, which will make it highly distinctive in the Middle East.
The site is approximately 30 minutes away from Oman’s international airport and 45 minutes from capital Muscat. A building density of over 10 million sq m gross floor area will be developed over several, market-determined phases.
With the launch of Blue City, Oman has become the latest and most ambitious among its GCC neighbours in attracting global investments to its freehold property market.
ASIT chairman, Anees Issa, says that the company has been working very closely with Omani ministries and other official bodies since the announcement of the Blue City project in June 2005.
“In only seven months we have brought this exciting concept from being a vision to being a reality,” he says. “Everything we are creating, fits with the Omani Government’s aspirations to diversify away from its reliance on oil and gas and towards sustainable tourism.”
ASIT’s vice chairman, Ahmed Abubaker Janahi, is also the man behind the vision of The Blue City. He says: “My idea was to create a truly integrated city supported by real and sustainable economic activities, with a style of architecture which matches and enhances Oman’s own spirit and essence.
“Even Phase One, with its mixture of luxury, five and four star hotels and other tourism attractions, is much more than a mere holiday resort. It is designed to attract permanent residents, many of whom will be working or studying in the city or in some way associated with the city itself and its variety of economic activities”.
“As proof of our commitment to boost the tourism service sector, the first projects that will be executed as per the construction programme are touristic in nature. Freehold residential units will be offered later this year.”
The developers have already signed a deal to bring to the project one of the world's finest luxury boutique hotels. The hotel will be designed, equipped and managed by world-famous hotelier Gordon Campbell Gray, famed for London’s leading luxury business hotel called One Aldwych in the heart of the city.
The new luxury beachfront hotel will have a site area of 33,500 sq m, with overall development costs put at $60 million. The hotel will offer 121 rooms furnished to the world’s highest luxury standards and is scheduled to open in the winter of 2008/9.
The project is being implemented on a fast track and the tasks including planning, feasibility study, research, design and financing process have taken only seven months, according to the developer. Multiple firms were hired to work in parallel and at the end, their efforts were pooled together to bring the project to the launching stage.
The entire development is expected to house more than 20 (mostly five-star) hotels upon completion. The project aims to attract direct foreign investment and some of the top global players as operators for the facilities. Already Blue City has generated tremendous interest from anchor hotel and leisure operators such as Marriott, St Regis of Starwood, Raffles, apart from Campbell Gray Hotels.
The project is based on the logic of creating a city with multidisciplinary living destination attracting people from across the globe.
The buildings in Blue City will be designed to be functional, efficient, and of contemporary structure yet they would have vernacular flair. When complete, the city will have a full scope of efficient, reliable, state-of-the-art infrastructure, buildings and tenant services provided by specialty companies, in cooperation with Oman government.
Environment
A key element of the planning for the Blue City is for the designers and builders to meet Oman’s stringent environmental requirements. The city is being touted as eco-friendly and following the principles of sustainable development, ‘developed with nature, not against it’. The master plan integrates parks, beach promenades and a natural creek reserve as well as maximising the experience and use of waterfront activities and underwater exploration.
Internationally-renowned companies have been brought in to provide environmental studies and vital initial strategic reports have already been prepared and submitted.
The developers are keen to work with the natural environment and preserve and enhance its qualities. There is, for example, a massive programme of tree-planting and landscaping.
The overall approach to master planning and design as well as the entire approach to zoning and architecture – from adherence to low-rise low-density development to careful handling of natural features such as a creek formation in Phase One and the treatment of beaches and studying of coastal erosion issues – all put environment at the top of the list in the Blue City.
Mindful of the scarcity of water in the region, the developers have built into Phase One a sophisticated water-recycling plant for the irrigation of all landscaped areas, including the golf courses.
Preliminary environmental-related studies along with a survey of infrastructure requirements of the city were conducted by Africon of South Africa at the end of 2004 and early 2005 and these were later followed up by British Consultants, WS Atkins and Posford Haskoning Gulf Bahrain and its UK partners, Royal Haskoning.
Professor Akhlaghi adds: “Working closely with the Omani Ministry of Regional Municipalities Environment and Water Resources, a Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment was submitted at the end of October 2005. In December a full and detailed Environmental Impact Analysis was handed to the Ministry. The studies indicate that ongoing measurement and monitoring will ensure that not only will the environmental impact of the Blue City be minimised, but that in certain areas our intervention may indeed enhance the environment."
The UK-based Hampton International has been appointed as sales and marketing agent for the development.
