A ‘ city’ being built around an airport
Areas in and around Dubai World Central are ideal locations to absorb future population growth
Dubai has been a city built by extensions – first, of the Creek which cemented the emirate’s emerging status as a trading hub during the 1970s. Then, during the better part of the last decade, ‘ New Dubai’ with its skyline of signature high- rises came to the forefront as the city moved well beyond Shaikh Zayed Road.
Now, another transformation of the city is taking place, much more subtle than the Creek extension or the towering landmarks of New Dubai.
By 2020 and well in time for the World Expo, another city- withina- city will have taken shape around Dubai World Central, which is already well on its way to being the world’s largest airport.
It could – with a certain flight of imagination - be described as the “city” that an airport has built. The fact that this expanse will also host the permanent attractions being built for Expo 2020 scales up the stakes involved for the future ‘ city’. ( Think of what the Dubai World Centre meant for the city when it was completed in the 1980s, and then multiply that impact a few times over, and one can get a grasp of what Dubai World Central means for the city’s planners and future residents.)
“There has been an increase in construction activity around DWC and adjacent masterplanned developments, where a number of projects have been restarted, including the Mall of the World, Dubai Creek Harbour, Dubai Water Canal, Deira Islands, amongst others,” said Matt Green, Head of Research and Consultancy at CBRE Middle East.
“We invariably expect to see further announcements from other key players in Dubai’s real estate market as we progress towards 2020. Clearly, Expo 2020 will add an extra impetus because of the improvement in sentiment and also give Dubai a new group of investors and occupiers to target thereafter.
“However, it is important to stress the importance of launching new projects in line with actual demand so that we can try to avoid the occurrence of a future oversupply situation.”
Winning the Expo 2020 has given Dubai a greater degree of flexibility in building up its next round of attractions. There are the newly conceived ones for the Expo 2020 venue itself, but in recent months Dubai has released the roadmap for the full development of the Mall of the World, which includes a significant number of new hotel rooms apart from retail capacity, and the multiple themed attractions at Dubai Parks and Resorts ( which have a 2016 completion timeline).
The rationale is clear – build up towards Expo 2020 and then use that substantial platform to chase its aspirations to be an all- year destination for tourists beyond that. According to Green, “Expo 2020 will add an extra impetu because of the improvement in sentiment and also give Dubai a new group of investors and occupiers.” The planning and build up encompasses not just what can be done for visitors flying over to the city to take in the attractions and the sun for a few days.
Dubai needs that fresh stock of residential and commercial real estate. The existing high- density locations within the city – Deira, Bur Dubai or even the freehold clusters of New Dubai along Shaikh Zayed Road – is near saturation level in terms of available space for new builds. As Dubai keeps attracting more to its already substantial resident base from the rest of the world, areas in and around World Central have the makings of being the ideal location to absorb future needs.
“DWC has tremendous potential