Nakheel: Not learning from past mistakes?

Timon Singh

The Dubai debt crisis hit Dubai World and its subsidary Nakheel hard, and to pretend otherwise could be described as foolhardy and reckless. However business must go on and as such, the developer is ploughing ahead with finishing projects that have appeared to be stuck in limbo - such as The World.

In the past, the property developer have said they're "committed to opening at least five hotels on the Palm Jumeirah by 2011".

Although almost two thirds of construction projects in Dubai were cancelled, amazingly none of the 30 hotel projects on the Palm were. In a statement last year, a Nakheel spokesman said, "Palm Jumeirah will become one of the world's premier resorts, offering more than 30 beachfront hotels, located on the island's trunk and crescent."

The spokesperson further added: "A number of hotels on Palm Jumeirah's crescent and trunk are currently under construction, including Fairmont Hotel & Residences, Royal Amwaj and Oceana's Movenpick Hotel. Ottoman Place on the crescent, is due to open in the coming months with a number of hotels expected to open throughout the course of 2010."

Palm Jumeirah: A money pit?

When it was first opened, the Palm Jumeirah was conceived as a luxury resort populated with luxury hotels, villas, shopping malls, theme parks, marinas and entertainment centres, but many buildings have yet to be finished.

Only the Atlantis stands finished, a seven-star luxury hotel that when it was opened unleashed 100,000 fireworks (seven times the amount that were used for the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony). The display lit up the entire island and was even visible from space.

Currently, Nakheel has a host of expensive projects underway including the other artificial Palm-shaped archipelagos, The World and the Dubai waterfront scheme, not to mention all the schemes 'put on hold' such as The Nakheel Tower, Trump International Hotel, and 'The Universe' - a man made arcipelago in the shape of the Solar System.

With so many plates spinning, wouldn't it not make sense for Nakheel to put its entire efforts into finishing one project (The World) instead of spreading itself too thinly and not finishing any of their many 'in limbo' construction schemes?

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