Dubai Festival City

The DFC commands an impressive site adjacent to the Dubai Creek, where the Global Village section of the Dubai Shopping Festival is staged annually. Part of the original concept was to create a permanent home for the DSF.

So far $200 million has been spent on the infrastructure for this vast project, truly 'a city within a city'. It will take 10 years to complete. But the first part of the first phase, a 250 acre golf course and 300 villas for rent, will be ready for September 2003 and the IMF and World Bank conferences in Dubai.

Thereafter the genesis of the project is carefully arranged to maximize cash flow. By the end of 2004 a massive automotive sales park will open with showrooms for the likes of Toyota, Lexus, and DaimlerChrysler.

Rolling through to 2006 the waterfront crescent and retail complex will open with spacious interiors for indoor shopping in all seasons. From then to 2012 the full 15 phases of the Dubai Festival City will emerge from the ground, including a business park for multinationals, several residential districts, and a 50-storey Festival Tower.

'Presently we are working entirely on private capital,' says ceo Lee Tabler. 'We are talking to various banking consortiums about loans but we have not made a decision on which way to go. But we will not be having an initial public offering as this will remain a private project, though there could be an element of private equity'.
Similarly, and perhaps rather strangely, there will be no residential units for sale at the Dubai Festival City, all apartments and villas will be rented, and the commercial space will be leased to tenants.

Abdullah Al Futtaim is the fabulously wealthy Dubai businessman behind this project. He holds 40 company agencies and employs 10,000 people in the emirate.

The Al Futtaim family split its empire into two parts in early 2000. And Majid Al Futtaim is now developing a rival shopping centre opposite the Dubai Internet City which will feature the Middle East's first indoor skiing centre when it opens in 2005.

Clearly the longstanding rivalry between these two prominent businessmen now extends into real estate development, and it will be interesting to see whose project fares best.

The DFC is more central and closer to the airport, but its rival is located in Dubai's growth corridor. Only time will tell which proves more successful, but they are both outstanding projects that will add sophistication and depth to life in Dubai.