Yas Island tracks Formula One finish

'Overall we're looking at phase one, those are the elements that we need for the first race, and phase one is 70% complete,' said Steve Worrell, Director Mixed Use Development for the island's projects.

'We're at peak labour workforce, just over 40,000 people, and everybody is working flat out to achieve that.'

The completion of the race track, grandstands and surrounding hotels is well underway, although, as with many other developers, Aldar has been affected by the current financial situation to a certain extent. Attractions such as Yas Mall, which will now open in 2012 - approximately one year later than originally scheduled - have come under pressure to cut their budgets by 30% in order to maximize profitability.

Despite this Worrell is positive that everything is on schedule for the island's unveiling on the world stage in Q4 of this year: 'The economic situation, it could be argued, has benefited our project because it made more resources available and that's a significant benefit.

Phased handover

'We will start a phased handover of the hotels this summer. We've also already opened a piece of the Saadiyat-Shahamah freeway, to construction traffic not to the public, so that's well advanced. As for the racetrack, which is what everybody is focused on, it is also about 70% complete. The asphalt in the main start/finish lane is going down this week, with the final part down by July, once the utility cables are placed.'

Access to services such as potable water has been commissioned and utilities are expected to begin coming online within the next two months, with flooding for the Marina due to begin in early May.

The seven hotels by the race track are externally finished as are the principal interior details, and most of the rooms and suites are complete. They are expected to provide an extra 2,500 rooms by Q4 2009.

'I would expect the hotels to have soft openings in September,' said Worrell. 'The Marina hotel, which straddles the racetrack, still has the shroud to go on the outside of it, but inside, the standard rooms and suites are nearing completion.'

Masterplan changes

Once the initial phase has been unveiled in November, Aldar will continue to oversee the island's subsequent developments, including the 200,000sqm Ferrari World, the largest indoor theme park built to date, whose external infrastructure is nearly complete, Yas Mall and the residential developments.

'There's not any change in [post phase 1 building] priorities, the biggest change is what the product is actually going to be,' said Worrell.

'The biggest change is reviewing the masterplan, reviewing what the market wants, and reviewing the feasibility studies to reconfirm that it's going to be something that you really want to build and it's going to bring a return for the investors. I am expecting changes to the masterplan, these will come out of our review of what we're actually going to deliver.'