Interview with Emaar's Mohammed Alabbar (page 1 of 2)

Q. Emaar has announced very ambitious plans for the next few months. Is the company stretching itself too thin?

A. On the contrary, if we didn't do that, I don't think it would be fair to our shareholders. And I don't think we would be part of the successful, progressive city that we are from.

Emaar's philosophy - and the philosophy of Dubai - is very progressive, crossing the lines every once in a while, because we are surrounded by such a huge market. That's the only way forward today: to go and compete and take charge.

Q. Could you tell me more about these new projects and how they fit with the broader vision of Dubai's development.

A. Keep in mind that the city today serves a minimum of 1.5 billion people across the wider region. Tourism grows 11-12 percent a year. We have healthy population growth of about four percent. Every sector of the economy is growing. Yet, to serve this wider region, the irony is that you only have one true hub.

Imagine being in the United States and only having New York - and not Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington.

We are blessed in that we are the only New York in the region, but our region's size is three times that of America. So you must look to the future, and look forward. Does that mean taking some calculated risks? Yes. But the choice is yours.

Q. You're building the world's biggest shopping mall and tallest tower. Don't you see a risk of oversupply in Dubai?

A. You can tell me that it's oversupply - and I respect that - but not when it comes to this location, because it is almost in the heart of the city. I'm glad it's not in the heart because we'd have traffic issues. We'll still have traffic issues, anyway.

You can control your destiny because you're going to design one square kilometer, and more, to make it a statement to the whole world that this is the most valuable square kilometer in the world. Our objective is to make this the most valuable square kilometer on the planet.

Q. How would you make it the most valuable piece of land in the world? Do you have the right site? Do you have the right location? Will you master-plan it right? Will you have the element of humanity? Will you provide special services? Will you look at every single item from traffic studies to water flow to the details of your curbs? Do your parks have guardians? Where will the bicycles park? How will people live? What will children do? What's the total density?

A. You can build so much that you disturb the density of the place. We are in the Middle East, so we are designing the whole development in a very modern Middle East architectural style. It's everything from the feel to the look to the services. Then you need to provide accessibility for the whole development.

So why am I so confident? Because everybody on the team is so passionate about one thing: making this the best and most valuable square kilometer on the planet. Because of what I see in their eyes, I have no doubt in my mind that it's going to be just that.

Q. How much are you investing in these projects?

A. Close to 3 billion euros.

Q. Emaar is a real estate company with no experience in retail. Isn't moving away from your core competency a risk?

A. I believe that we're staying with our core competency because we're not going to operate shops. We will build the real estate.

Constructing any kind of building is no different from building retail space.