Eta Star Projects LLC to invest AED 1 billion to create 'Dubai Lifestyle City' at Dubailand

It will host the world famous 'IMG Sports Academy', which will be coming to the region for the first time.

The City, which will sprawl over an area of 4 million square feet, will start to rise off the ground at the end of the coming year and will be completed by the year 2007.

The Dubai Lifestyle City concept fits in well the future plans and ambitious vision of the Dubailand project. The new City aims to provide a new and unique lifestyle to its residents and visitors, within a calm and natural environment.

'ETA Star Projects LLC' has formed an exclusive partnership with IMG Academy, an international pioneer in the field of managing sports activities, to create the first international sports academy in Dubai. The IMG Academy will include the famous Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy and David Leadbetter Golf Academics, allowing tennis and golf fans a great opportunity to learn and excel in these sports.

Salem Bin Dasmal, Chief Executive Officer of Dubailand said:

"The launch of this project comes in line with the various modern lifestyles offered by Dubailand. These are reflected through a series of unique development projects catering to different family tourism sectors and creating a unique value proposition excelling even the most sophisticated global standards."

"We work in Dubailand on strengthening our relations with the private sector companies, and enabling them to take an active role in the overall growth of the economy. This is because we believe in providing promising investment opportunities, while the private sector handles the role of developing these opportunities and creating pioneering projects like the Dubai Lifestyle City project.

Ted Meekma, Senior Vice President and Co-director of IMG Academies stated, "There is no doubt that our cooperation with ETA Star Projects and our presence at Dubai Lifestyle City will provide students from all over the region the opportunity to get the best sports training by professional academics of high capabilities in the IMG corporation. We are proud to launch this initiative for the first time in the Middle East."

Arif Rahman, Director of Finance of ETA Ascon Group said: "The new project reflects ETA's constant commitment to support the development of society's various sectors in the UAE. We are proud to launch this ambitious project in Dubailand, which provides diverse sophisticated lifestyles."

The Dubai Lifestyle City will consist of a 7-star hotel including a sports centre and a luxurious health club measuring around 20,000 square feet. The club will offer various healing alternative techniques, including "Eurofeda", "Tai Chi", Aromatherapy, massage and other services, in addition to the exclusive Chalets at the club that would be operated by the hotel.

Rahman concluded by saying, "Since the past three decades, ETA Ascon Group is careful about bringing the best experiences of various fields to the UAE. We are very pleased to be a part of Dubailand project and we reaffirm our commitment to provide all the necessary services that go in line with the status of Dubai and the UAE."