DIFC becoming 'unique community'

Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), ranked as the world's fastest-growing international financial centre, is seeking investment worth Dh15 billion through joint ventures to develop its remaining 10 million square feet land bank, Emirates 24|7 can reveal.

“We are in Cityscape to make the market aware that we are now going to complete our master plan and there are opportunities for appropriate investors,” Brett Schafer, CEO, DIFC Properties, said.

“We have 110 acres in our master plan, of which 25 million square feet has development potential.

“We have already built 15 million square feet and now we are building the remaining 10 million square feet, which will need investment of nearly Dh15 billion.”

Schafer said DIFC will not be selling any more of their plots, adding, “We are going to be developing them on a joint venture basis with appropriate developers and investors.”

DIFC Properties is currently in discussions with some high profile investors and are likely to make an announcement of their joint venture in the coming few weeks.

Of the 10 million square feet, 60 per cent of the land will be dedicated to offices, 25 per cent for residential and remaining 15 per cent for retail.

Two new hotels

The centre will be building two hotels, with one located in
the middle of the master plan.

“We are going to do two more hotels. One of them will be a 100-room boutique hotel for which we already have a memorandum of understanding with an investor.
“We hope to announce the joint venture in the next
few months.”

Currently, Ritz-Carlton is the only hotel in the DIFC, with Rosewood Dubai expected to become operational within a year.

The new development will be completed over the next 10 years.

Getting connected

In addition, Schafer is ensuring that the entire DIFC master development is interlinked, but don’t project don’t remain standalone entities.

“The first thing we are going to do is to connect everything together.

“A lot of people still think that DIFC is restricted to the Gate, but that’s not the case…. it’s much bigger than that.
“We have significant buildings such as the Index Tower, Central Park, Emirates Financial Tower, Damac Park Towers, Daman Tower and Sky Gardens, but not all of them are connected.

“So our objective is to tie them together and so we also have the opportunity to create a unique space and community,” he said.

DIFC will also construct a sports complex with a tennis court, basketball court, gym, etc. Not the least, the town centre will have entertainment venues a shopping mall with restaurants offering a community lifestyle to residents and workers.

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