Dubai to launch $1bn DIFC project next week

Dubai’s sovereign wealth fund, the Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), and Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management will formally launch their first project in Dubai next Wednesday.

 

bridgemedia | Nike Off-White

The two organisations plan to build a $1 billion development within the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) free zone.

ICD Brookfield Place will be the first new construction project there since the property crash in 2008 and is scheduled to be completed in 2018.

It comprises a 50-storey office tower, hotel and retail outlets on a site off Al Sa’ada Street behind the Ritz Carlton hotel.

The ICD has helped DIFC in the past, reported the Financial Times last March, buying some of its assets ahead of a refinancing in 2012, positioning the free zone on a stronger footing.

Emirates247 reported that in 2012 the ICD-Brookfield joint venture listed on the Dubai Land Department’s Tanmia initiative, which aims to kickstart stalled projects.

It was reported last October that British ‘starchitect’ Norman Foster’s firm was working on the design of a tower, but this has not been confirmed.

ICD holds stakes in more than 30 companies, including Emaar Properties and Emirates Airline.

Brookfield Asset Management is an alternative asset manager with over $175 billion of assets under management, it claims. The company is co-listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges and on NYSE Euronext.

More than 15,000 people work at the DIFC, where occupiers include international law firms, consultancies and financial groups.

 

credit to Arabian Business