KEO International Consultants appointed as program managers for Dh26 billion (USD 7.1 billion) Mohammed bin Zayed City Commercial Towers Project, Abu Dhabi, UAE

It also has announced the appointment of KEO International Consultants as the Program and Construction Manager for its implementation.

The project calls for the development of 347 towers within the five sectors located in Mohammed Bin Zayed City. The Master Plans for each of the sectors, also carried out by KEO, provide features that create dynamic, desirable, safe and family oriented residential self sustaining mini-cities. Each of these new min-cities will include attractive amenities featuring shopping streets, parks, restaurants, extensive shaded walkways, underground parking and water features. It is expected that these sectors will house over 50,000 inhabitants.

Commenting on KEO's role as both the Master Planner and Program Manager, Donna Sultan said: "We have always seen our role as a true collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Municipality both in the developing the vision of these new mini-cities and now as one team for their implementation. The scale of development is very ambitious as is the schedule which calls for all sectors and their towers to be built in the next five years. This will require well coordinated efforts and cooperation between the plot owners the Municipality and us."

The 26 Billion Dirham ($7.1 billion) scheme is one of the most important public/private partnering developments launched by the Government of Abu Dhabi. The government is separately funding nearly 1 Billion Dirham ($242.4 million) for all infrastructure services and the extensive landscaping. The Municipality officials and KEO confirmed that binding design and construction guidelines will be issued to each of the plot owners to ensure quality of design and construction and adherence to the master plan requirements. A pre-qualification process for consultants and contractors will be mandatory and is expected to begin very soon.

In order to facilitate the development of each of the sectors, a dedicated project office will be built in Mohammed Bin Zayed City that will be a "One Stop Shop" for the implementation of the project which will include all permitting processes. Uwe Nienstedt, Project Executive for the Development, stated "This approach is unique and will ensure coordination between all consultants and contractors and the best possible service to the plot owners."