H.E.Mohammed Ali Al Hashimi

Tiara evolves into Essque Hotels

Zabeel Investments today announced that its flagship hospitality brand, Tiara Hotels & Resorts, is adopting a new brand name – Essque Hotels – as it gears up to open its first property in 2009.

Announcing the rebranding, H.E. Mohammed Ali Al Hashimi, Executive Chairman of Zabeel Investments said: “Essque was created as we felt it was the right time to introduce a brand that will become a benchmark in luxury hospitality. A number of sub-brands, covering a range of hospitality services and operating as standalone and integrated business units, will eventually come under the Essque Group.”

H.E. Al Hashimi added: “Essque is a contemporary brand that reflects the passion, creativity and originality of its ‘thought luxury’ hospitality offering. As a brand it will defy conventional perceptions of hospitality.”

Danny Haddad, CEO, Essque Hotels said: “Our agenda is simple: we want to inject a strong element of democracy in our approach to hospitality. We want to empower our guests with the freedom to choose, enabling them to customise their experiences at our properties.”

Essque Hotels is currently in the process of finalising plans to open its first property, Essque, which is located at the heart of the Palm Jumeirah. Scheduled to open in 2009, the property will feature 309 luxury bedrooms and suites, a full-fledged spa, meeting rooms and a range of food and beverage outlets. Essque will be part of the Tiara Residence project.

Jumeirah Gardens

Garden life

Imagine a development with some of the world’s tallest buildings, varied microclimates and a mini-Manhattan. Well, this is exactly what Meraas Development, a new real estate developer, has burst on to Dubai’s property stage with, and the project is worth a staggering £56bn.

Jumeirah Gardens will be a fully integrated mixed-use development project comprising seven distinct areas, taking up approximately 110 million square feet of land, with the aim of catering to a population of around 60,000 residents.

“Every great city has a great park. London has Hyde Park, New York has Central Park. This will be Dubai Park,” said Sina Al Kazim, chief executive of Meraas Development. The park will be surrounded on all sides by residential apartments, duplexes, penthouses, villas and commercial buildings, with handover of phase one expected in 2011.

Nakheel Harbour and Tower

Tall story

Nakheel has announced plans to build the world's tallest tower, at over one kilometre high. Nakheel Harbour and Tower will be a 270 hectare development, stretching between phase two of the 1bn Battuta shopping mall and the 75 kilometre Arabian Canal. The one-kilometre-high tower will be the centre piece of the area, with more than 200 floors and taking an estimated 500,000 cubic metres of concrete to build. Reinforcing bars used in the tower's development could stretch from Dubai to New York, if laid end-to-end.

The building is so tall that it will experience five different microclimatic conditions from top to bottom. It will also house the world's first inner city harbour and will be made up of four towers within one single structure. Nakheel Harbour and Tower will have around 19,000 residential units to accommodate an estimated population of 55,000 people. A further 45,000 people are expected to work in the area.