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Analysis

Towering Ambition

Emaar’s new Dubai Creek Harbour development will have a stunning $1bn centrepiece. But with only 20 usable floors, how will it make money? Jason O’Connell writes.

It will rise “a notch” taller than the Burj Khalifa and is being developed by the same company, but that’s where comparisons end between the world’s tallest building and Emaar Properties’ new concept for a centrepiece at its Dubai Creek Harbour master development.

The Santiago Calatrava Valls-conceived tower is a different animal entirely, more monument
than skyscraper, more Eiffel Tower than Empire State building. The Burj Khalifa contains 154 usable floors covering close to 310,000 square metres of floor space. Full of residential apartments, offices, restaurants and a luxury hotel, it’s not hard to see how investors get a return on the $1.5bn it cost to build.

Despite being a shade taller, The Tower – as it is currently called – will have just 18 to 20 usable floors located in the bulb near the summit, while the 30 metre-wide elongated stem which makes up most of the length of the building will hold nothing but elevator shafts. The bulb will contain a boutique hotel and floors dedicated to observation decks with gardens, restaurants and function rooms. But however much they charge to use these facilities, it’s difficult to see how the $1bn tower will make money.

That is until you consider the tower in the context of what will be built around it. Emaar Properties chairman Mohammed Alabbar touched on the business case for the tower at the launch event last month, when he drew a comparison with the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Investors, he told the audience, are prepared to pay a premium of between 15% and 30% for an apartment with a view of the Eiffel Tower. “We realised over time that many customers would like to have that view,” says Alabbar. “And that’s the financial model.”The Tower at Dubai Creek Harbour (6)

Alabbar expects the Tower to have a similar financial effect on its surroundings in Dubai Creek Harbour, a development that will be more than twice the size of Downtown Dubai, home to Burj Khalifa. As well as the usual high end property and hotels there will be a new “mega retail district” that will dwarf the Dubai Mall, currently the world’s largest. Specifics of the retail destination are likely to be unveiled in a couple of months’ time, Alabbar said at the event. The Tower will lend this new neighbourhood an air of exclusivity, boosting property values and room rates and drawing wealthy investors and visitors from around the world.

In many ways Dubai Creek Harbour is Downtown Dubai 2.0. It represents a chance for Emaar to repeat the success of its flagship development – only this time on an even grander scale. “A lot of people ask me why go and do a new Downtown,” Alabbar told the audience gathered at Emaar’s sales office located on the site of the future development on the creek next to the Ras Al Khor wildlife sanctuary. “Well if you go Downtown to Burj Khalifa you can tell that the volume of traffic and activity has almost reached a limit.

“And Dubai is becoming a global hub comparable to Paris, London, Shanghai, Bombay and other g
reat cities in the world. It’s really a great chance for us to do this together with our partners one more time in Dubai Creek Harbour.”

Having already done the world’s tallest building, The Tower is undoubtedly aimed – at least in part – at delivering something new that will elevate Dubai into the ranks of these elite global cities. “We were looking for a tower and a monument that adds value to the world,” says Alabbar. “We wanted to do that with absolute elegance. We want elegance, technology, engineering, beauty day and night. Calatrava I believe has done that very well.”

As the UAE approaches its 50th anniversary in 2021, there is also a clear desire to leave a lasting legacy in the same way that monuments in other cities have managed to do. The Eiffel Tower was mentioned more than once during the event. “We as a country are 45 years old whereas Paris is hundreds of years old so I think there’s so much we need to build and create in our country for us to be remembered 500 years from today,” Alabbar says. “Of course real estate will be quite valuable when we do this, but this is also part of the progress of our city and our n
ation as well.”

“There’s no doubt that the Eiffel Tower has inspired for over 100 years,” Calatrava adds. “It became an icon and represented a city, a nation and a whole epoch. As soon as you landmark a place you are creating a reference for those that would come here to live. Is the Statue of Liberty a sculpture or is it something usable? Is the Eiffel Tower a sculpture or something usable? In our case we wanted to do a sculpture that is penetrable, habitable and will landmark the place and send an unmistakable message.”

Like all of Calatrava’s work The Tower will blur the lines between art and architecture using the most advanced technologies. The cables that will stabilse the building, for example, will be similar to those used in suspension bridges though on a scale not seen before. It’s “technology as a vehicle to beauty and art”, Calatrava says. He describes the overall design as a “slender minaret held by cables” which provide an “aura around the tower” producing an effect that is “very delicate, like a beautiful necklace”.

The original master plan was adjusted to include a smaller plaza around the tower with a diameter of 500 metres “just to make sure the proportions are right”, Alabbar says.

“I want to underline that word proportion,” adds Calatrava. “Proportion because the city grows from the centre to the outside favouring viewing corridors towards the tower and also creating an order related to the new centre.”

Financed on a 50/50 debt to equity basis, construction of the project will consist of three phases: The foundations, a concrete core and the cables. The edifice will be clad in stainless steel and glass with all materials adapted to the climatic conditions of the Gulf. The stainless steel pinnacle will be built separately and transported to the site.

Though officially no deadline has been set for the completion of the tower it is clear when the target delivery date is. “The tower is a small thing between us and our partners to give to the city for 2020,” says Al
abbar.

Quick Facts:

The Tower

$1bn development cost

Around 830 metres high

30 metre stem diameter

500 metre plaza diameter

Completed in 2020

Dubai Creek Harbour

6 square km development

6.79 million sq m of residential space

11.16 million sq m of retail precincts

851,000 sq m of commercial property

22 hotels with 4,400 rooms

Three more iconic projects by Santiago Calatrava

City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia

Possibly Calatrava’s most famous work. Designed with Felix Candela, this cultural complex consists of a number of buildings located together in a dried up river bed in Valencia built gradually between 1996 and
2005. Attractions include an oceanography centre with Europe’s biggest aquarium, a science museum, the ‘Hemisferic’ planetarium; the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía opera house; the gardens of the Umbracle; the Agora multipurpose event space and a bridge.

World Trade Centre Transportation Hub station, New York City

This spectacular new subway station on the site of the old World Trade Centre opened in March this year though parts of the building remain under construction. The main hall, known as the Oculus, is reminiscent of the helmet shape used in Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences with the addition of a pair of wings, giving it the appearance of a dove about to take flight. Controversially, the building opened seven years behind schedule and at twice the original $2bn budget, despite revisions being made to keep the cost down.

The Turning Torso skyscraper in Malmo, Sweden

This skyscraper will appear familiar to Dubai residents or anyone that has visited Dubai Marina and seen the distinctive, twisting Cayan Tower. Calatrava’s Turning Torso in the Swedish city of Malmo, however was completed in 2005, ten years before its Dubai doppelganger. The 190 metre building is constructed in nine, five-storey segments and features a 90 degree twist.

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