Will Atlantis go the way of well… ATLANTIS?
The Palm Jumeirah is not sinking into the sea, contrary to speculation in recent days, a Nakheel executive says.
“The proof is in the pudding,” said Shaun Lenehan, the head of Nakheel’s environment department. “The Palm is intact. If there were subsidence, you would see cracks in the buildings, windows popping out. We have no evidence of that happening.”
But the US$12 billion (Dh44.07) island has settled slightly since it was created, in line with all artificially created land masses, Mr Lenehan and other engineers said.
Is Atlantis Destined to Sink?
He was responding to claims from a landscape surveyor speaking at a conference in Qatar, who was quoted as saying that the Palm Jumeirah was sinking by an average of 5mm a year and might flood in the future if ocean levels rose. The engineer cited satellite images of the island taken periodically over the past few years…MORE
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A clean-up team has been drafted on to the Palm Jumeirah after complaints from residents about strong-smelling algae collecting along its shoreline.
For the past few weeks tenants living along fronds C and D of the artificial island, where garden homes cost up to Dh12 million (US$3.27m), have complained that the substance has left the area stinking “like sewage”.
Nakheel, the developer of the Palm, confirmed that the algae had been identified at locations around Palm Jumeirah. It said the phenomenon was common in summer, when warmer waters and increased sunlight provided perfect conditions for it to grow.
One resident said: “I don’t like to whinge, particularly with the current climate and with people losing their jobs, but when you pay a lot of money for a property on the Palm you want problems like this to be sorted out… MORE
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Dubai Government officials have tried to sound upbeat in recent days, saying that the ‘bad times’ are now in the past, and that might be technically correct – with property and equity prices now so low that the additional possible downside is limited. Yet there are few in local business who do not see a hard road ahead.
Dubai Land Department figures showed some buyers getting extraordinary bargains last week with a total of 12 villas changing hands for an average of $286,000 each, and 535 apartments sold for an average price of $193,000. Agents talk of ‘distress selling’ and indeed at these price levels the downside is relatively low for buyers.
$10bn bond
However, the idea that the $10 billion raised from the UAE Central Bank in a government bond issue will restore the Dubai boom look wide of the mark. This is a substantial sum. But there are billions in loans to refinance, interest to pay on $80 billion in total debts and a lot of money now outstanding to contractors.
Dubai has the unenviable task of unwinding a real estate boom in the face of the worst global economic crisis since the 1930s. That is a major challenge even with the rich UAE federation as a lender of last resort.
There are difficult choices ahead. It is already clear that construction work is proceeding at full speed on The Palm Jumeirah, Downtown Dubai and the Burj Dubai and Business Bay. On many other sites across the city work has stopped, and it is hard to see how this will restart anytime soon.
Global trade has fallen off a cliff in the first quarter of 2009, and Dubai as the trading hub of the Middle East has clearly been affected.
The oil market also looks unreasonably weak given this collapse in trade and slumping economies around the globe. The International Energy Agency has warned that oil demand will drop by 2.4 million barrels per day in 2009, citing a growing consensus that economic recovery will be delayed until at least 2010…SOURCE
Sphere: Related Content Posted 1 year, 4 months ago at 11:28 am. View Comments
UN scientists say that although the waters off Dubai’s coast will never again be what they once were, the Palm Jumeirah offshore 
structure is creating a new complex marine ecosystem despite years of disruptive construction work.
The United Nations University’s International Network on Water, Environment and Health, commissioned by the Palm developer Nakheel, compiled a report on the effects of the project.
They concluded that marine life is slowly returning to the coastline.
“They are developing into very interesting rocky reefs,” said the chief scientist behind the research, Dr Peter Sale, a marine ecologist.
Dr Sale is the assistant director of the United Nations University network, which has worked with Nakheel since early 2007. The goal of the collaboration is for the scientists to pursue a long-term environmental monitoring programme and a sustainable management plan for the waters surrounding Nakheel’s man-made islands.
Nakheel’s decision to build a series of structures along Dubai’s coastline has drawn criticism from conservationists opposed to the environmental cost of the projects, such as large-scale destruction of coral reefs and changes in water flows.
The Palm Jebel Ali, for example, is being built in a formerly protected area, the Jebel Ali Marine Sanctuary. The area was given legal protection in 1998 on the grounds that it housed one of the Gulf’s richest marine ecosystems, with 34 coral species and 77 species of reef fish. To mitigate the damage it has caused, Nakheel financed a scheme under which the Emirates Marine Environment Group, an NGO, transplanted corals elsewhere.
Despite initial positive results, the long-term benefits are still unknown.
Yesterday, the UN scientists acknowledged that the ecosystem that existed off Dubai’s coast has been lost forever.
“There are certainly going to be differences,” said Dr Ken Drouillard, associate professor at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research and Biological Sciences at the University of Windsor, Canada, who participated in the study.
“Much more complex habitat characteristics were present in the past.”…MORE
Sphere: Related Content Posted 1 year, 6 months ago at 3:38 pm. View Comments
Seriously, time to boycott the ingrates until they take care of the animal.
Over 140 days and counting for Sammy, the whale shark, who remains 
captive in a giant aquarium at the Atlantis hotel on the Palm Jumeirah.
Celebrities came, fireworks lit up the sky, and swirls of red carpet welcomed the glitterati as the hotel held one of the most expensive opening parties last November.
But there seems to be no reprieve for the juvenile whale shark who spends its hours in silent confinement.
When it was first captured, there was news of it being tagged and eventually released.
In a September 10, 2008, report published by Gulf News, Alan Leibman, President and Managing Director of Atlantis, was quoted: “The whale shark is an animal about which little is known and we hope that we can add to the research and data that is available.
Aquariums and marine habitats have been the key to education about our oceans and the animals that live in them. Education, conservation and research go hand in hand to benefit all marine life.”
Fair enough, but when was the endangered animal that usually covers thousands of kilometres in a single journey to be returned to its natural habitat? As the days wore on, silence from Atlantis increased.Gulf News’s ‘Save Sammy’ campaign brought its plight to the fore. She may be housed in one of the world’s largest aquariums but it is still a confined space for a creature that would grow to about 38 feet in length.Readers reacted, voiced their displeasure at the continued captivity, stuck on Sammy badges and demanded its release, but to no avail.
Then there was a positive turn. In a Gulf News report published last October 19, Dr Rashid Ahmad Bin Fahd, Minister of Environment and Water, told the newspaper: “Having this whale shark is very educational for … children and for all … people. This is a very rare animal and they [Atlantis] are keeping it in the main aquarium for everyone to see. They will release it.”A breakthrough
He said the UAE is a signatory to CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) and the whale shark would be released. However, he did not say when.In yet another report, Dr Saif Al Ghais, head of the Environmental and Industrial Authority, urged fishermen to leave whale sharks alone as they are harmless. International organisations joined in, people from across the globe wrote to Gulf News and the hotel. Letters poured in. The silence was deafening.Readers created songs online, mothers wrote bedtime stories featuring Sammy, and the whale shark became a symbol of silent suffering that the defenceless are often habituated to.
On December 18, the newspaper approached the public relations company for Atlantis, d-pr, again asking when Sammy was going to be free. The silence was broken, but all the public relations company for the hotel said, after repeated emails, was, “There are no updates”.Silence
As the holiday season bore down upon us, Gulf News decided to give them a further extension to release a statement about the whale shark. A final reminder was sent on January 5, 2009. Silence. This clearly shows that the management of Atlantis has no respect for the Press and no sense of accountability towards the residents of the country or the community it is based in…SOURCE
Sphere: Related Content Posted 1 year, 7 months ago at 3:04 pm. View Comments
Yet another reason why Dubai’s property market is dead. You never stop paying for your freehold that never gets you a visa and that you never truly own.
Residents are calling for greater transparency over how money is spent on the maintenance and upkeep of apartments.
Laws regulated by Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) say that homeowners should be able to monitor how service charges and maintenance are being spent by participating in owners’ associations.
However, despite the ‘Strata Law’ being in place for almost a year, few associations exist in the emirate. Instead, home owners in areas such as Discovery Gardens,
The Palm Jumeirah and Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) have taken to organising unofficial committees to battle recent hikes in maintenance costs.
In JBR, maintenance fee hikes of as much as 129 per cent have hit owners. An apartment owner, Cecilia Reinaldo, is behind the efforts to organise a committee to fight the increases.
“When we moved in we were shown a brochure which promised five beach clubs and a beach park but it’s been a year and we haven’t seen them,” she said. “I don’t know where this money is going.”
She added that the contract said that as soon as the first building was registered with Dubai Land Department, an owners’ association should be set up to look at how the maintenance fees were being spent. However none has been formed.
“Some of the people I spoke to said they wished they’d have rented, instead of buying the property,” she said. “If they go up across the board then demand for properties will fall further.”
A spokesman for Dubai Properties was unavailable for comment. However, RERA CEO Marwan bin Ghalita confirmed to Khaleej Times that Dubai Properties had already sought out RERA for talks about setting up an owners’ association. Acting on behalf of Dubai Properties, Salwan Property Management sent out a notice to residents informing them that maintenance fees would rise from Dh9.5 per square foot to Dh21.75 per square foot…SOURCE
Sphere: Related Content Posted 1 year, 8 months ago at 10:24 am. View Comments
…
Driving from the airport, as we pass skyscrapers growing from the sand, huge hoardings depicting Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed, and his two sons, a stream of limousines and SUVs and swarms of migrant workers toiling in the heat, we muse on how nothing about this man-made citadel of commercialism feels quite real. Truth and fantasy in Dubai, I find, often merge.
“Here is New Dubai,” our guide had said on my previous visit, as he showed us round the Burj al Arab. The beauty of that landmark hotel’s billowing sail-shaped exterior was dramatically offset by the terrifying garishness of its Gaudí-meets-Goldfinger interior. “And here is Old Dubai.” We were now at Madinat Jumeirah, at the time still under construction as a hotel and souq-style shopping complex. “Old Dubai?” I asked, “but it’s brand new.” Our guide quickly dismissed this inconvenient fact: “It is built in the Old Arabian style. It is Old Dubai.”
Madinat Jumeirah is a reconstruction, but the Dhow Wharfage on Dubai Creek, and adjoining Bastakia, with its wind-tower houses, tiny alleys and Arabic restaurants, is not. Here I lingered, where hundreds of colourful, wooden dhows still load and unload their cargo, presenting an incongruous and moving sight in the middle of the gleaming glass-and-metal city.
There are many dazzling destination hotels from which to choose. But if, like me, you prefer low-key hideaways to showy resorts with glitter-ball camel sculptures and 24-hour access to sushi, there has been, until now, a dearth. I’ve returned to investigate Dubai’s new boutique hotel, Desert Palm, and private guesthouse, La Maison d’Hôtes, each with a mere two dozen or so bedrooms. And because I’m as intrigued as everyone else, I’ve also booked to stay at Dubai’s latest phenomenon, Atlantis, The Palm, Sol Kerzner’s 1,539-room, £950 million resort on the man-made island of Palm Jumeirah.
At first sight, Desert Palm, which opened in March, is puzzling. Heading toward the desert, we turn off the highway and enter a gated villa complex, with high, blank walls and leafy avenues. Once past its discreet entrance, the hotel reveals its charms: with just 24 rooms but the amenities of a far bigger establishment, it’s as close as you’ll come in Dubai to a hideaway resort.
It has Dubai-style roots. The estate belongs to Ali Albwardy, the leading patron of polo in the region, and the low-rise hotel overlooks one of the four startlingly green, constantly watered polo fields where you can watch chukkas being played in the cooler months. The city makes a stunning backdrop, with the Burj al Arab plumb in the centre.
Sister hotel to Huvafen Fushi in the Maldives, Desert Palm’s design is modern colonial, with a beautifully coloured all-day bistro and deli overlooking a long and languorous stretch of infinity pool; a restaurant specialising in grilled beef and well-priced wines; and an expansive, deeply spoiling spa called Lime. Bedrooms are either in the hotel, with fine views, or in adjoining villas with their own pools. There’s a real sense of peace here, compared to other Dubai hotels, and we are upgraded to one of these.
We spend the next two days collapsed in blissful wicker “eggs” by one or other of the pools at our disposal, or on equally soothing beanbags floating on the water. Pretend that the constant hum of traffic is the distant breaking of waves on a golden shore, and we could be somewhere seriously dreamy.
But we’re not. On day three we penetrate the city for the first time. Mile upon mile of shopping malls, housing developments and roadworks give way to “The Strip”, the skyscraper-packed stretch of Sheikh Zayed Road that encapsulates Dubai’s meteoric rise…
Our final stop is Atlantis, The Palm, reached by a tunnel under the sea or (soon) by monorail for foot passengers. Desert Palm and Maison d’Hôtes seem a world away. Am I a guest in a hotel? Or an extra in a Hollywood blockbuster?
In creating Atlantis, with its undersea theme, including a colossal aquarium that recreates a lagoon amid replica ruins of the Lost City of Atlantis, hotel and property magnate Sol Kerzner had one avowed intention, the same one as producers of blockbusters: to “blow people away”.
And he does. Atlantis, the ultimate fantasy hotel, delivers by the bucketload. Actually, this production is Atlantis 2, the even more thrilling sequel to the first Atlantis, in the Bahamas. Love it or loathe it, one can only marvel at the high standards throughout this dusty pink, crustacea-encrusted pleasure palace on Palm Jumeirah Island, from the quality of the marine-themed decorative finish and the excellence of the food in the 17 restaurants (Nobu and self-service Saffron stand out) to the attentiveness of the 3,500 staff and the serenity of the spa.
The explosive, gaudy kitsch of Dale Chihuly’s writhing glass sculpture in the pillared lobby is a little much, even here, but mercifully things do calm down. The Ambassador Lagoon is mesmerising, and the spacious bedrooms are devoid of Dubai excess and very well executed. The many encircling salt and freshwater pools and terraces, plus state-of-the-art children’s clubs, the water adventure park Aquaventure and the Lost Chambers are free to guests, while for an extra fee they can swim with dolphins in Dolphin Bay.
The Lost Chambers? Follow the signs from the lobby and you’ll find them, and another guide, just like at the one at Madinat Jumeirah, distorting reality. While building the hotel, she gravely tells us, the Lost City of Atlantis was by chance uncovered and these gloomy chambers “under the sea” are some of its remains. We find ourselves nodding appreciatively as she proudly shows us such priceless artefacts as the king’s throne and the soldiers’ armour, and points out a shoal of piranhas, visible through glass windows, swimming among the ruins.
Take the kids; ignore the view; lie low on Fridays and Saturdays when it gets horribly overcrowded. You won’t have a dull moment.
Old Dubai, New Dubai…what, though, is the Real Dubai? The answer is simple really: it’s whatever you want it to be…SOURCE
Sphere: Related Content Posted 1 year, 9 months ago at 1:35 pm. View Comments
