NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL
Trees down as gales hits UAE
Traffic is diverted around a construction hoarding blown over in Abu Dhabi as high winds caused dust storms and damage across the nation yesterday. Brian Kerrigan / The National
U.A.E. - APR 13: Gale-force winds battered parts of the UAE yesterday and visibility along stretches of the Abu Dhabi to Dubai motorway was reduced to zero at times.
Traffic lights above many of Abu Dhabi’s roads swayed alarmingly as winds gusted at more than 60kph, whipping up clouds of dust and uprooting trees.
Weather forecasters at the National Centre for Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS) warned that the gales were likely to continue throughout today and that the Western region would continue to be the worst hit.
“Visibility on the main motorway between Dubai and Abu Dhabi has dropped to zero in places,” said the one meteorologist.
“The wind has reached 62kph at times and Abu Dhabi has seen winds of around 50kph. The west of the country has been worst affected, including parts of Sharjah.
“Dust and sand raised by the wind have made driving conditions very dangerous. Al Hamra saw visibility drop to 100 metres.”
The meteorologist added that trees had been torn down by the strong gusts along parts of the E11 motorway and on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi.
“The roads are very dangerous and drivers should take precautions such as slowing down.
“Cars travelling quickly on the roads become more unstable in strong wind, and this combined with poor visibility can be very dangerous.”
Lt Col Ahmad Al Shehhi, of Abu Dhabi’s traffic police department, said up to 20 palm trees as well as several advertisement banners along Airport Road had been blown down. These had been removed by police and municipality staff, he said, adding that there had been no reported injuries as a result of the weather.
A spokesman for Dubai Police said there were no reported accidents caused by the weather there either.
The gales come less than a month after a series of storms swept through the nation, leaving at least 18 dead, dozens injured and many more homeless in more than a week of high wind and torrential downpours.
The present spell of bad weather is due to a low-pressure front arriving in the UAE from eastern Saudi Arabia. The conditions are expected to ease this evening.
A forecaster at the Dubai meteorological office said wind speed there had peaked at about 25kph.
A sandstorm raised by the high wind puts paid to any thoughts of lazing in the sun on the beach at Dubai Marina yesterday afternoon. Pawan Singh / The National
“These winds will be having a bigger effect on Abu Dhabi and the desert areas,” she said. “These weather conditions are connected with the turbulence, which is formed in the clouds.”
Workers occupy up to a quarter of hotel rooms
ABU DHABI - APR 13: Up to a quarter of hotel rooms in the capital are occupied by residents seeking flats or white-collar workers on short contracts, according to the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA).
A lack of available properties to rent has led to hotels reporting a booming trade through long-term residents. This is putting pressure on a city that already has one of the highest hotel occupancy rates in the world. The phenomenon affects hotel apartments with small kitchens more than traditional hotels. The monthly bill for one of these apartments can range from Dh16,000 (US$4,400) to more than Dh30,000.
Lawrence Franklin, the strategy and policy division director at ADTA, said about half of Abu Dhabi’s hotels were classified as hotel apartments. He said the authority estimated about 25 per cent of hotel guests were long-term residents looking for a villa or working on months-long projects.
“The reality is that when properties run with very high occupancy rates, that’s obviously great for owners and developers but not so great for the people who want to stay in the accommodation,” said Mr Franklin.
Maria Brown, an associate director at Reed Specialist Recruitment, said she has spent the past six months living between three hotels while looking for a place to live. Her company has been paying her monthly hotel bill of around Dh30,000.
She found an apartment to split with a friend for a month, until the lease had to be renewed and the landlord tried to double the rent.
“Three times now I’ve arranged an appointment to see an apartment as soon as I heard about it, either through an ad or an agent. I’ve arrived to find it was already gone,” she said. Even hotel apartments, with their attached kitchens, have been difficult to find.
“I have been staying in actual hotel rooms,” she said.
“It’s very inconvenient, you can’t just get up and have a slice of toast at breakfast.”
The lack of hotel rooms exacerbates her suitcase lifestyle during major conferences in the capital, when she is either forced to leave, or told to pay twice the rent.
“My corporate rates go out the window when a conference comes. I’ll go from paying Dh1,000 per night to Dh2,000 and I just can’t afford that,” she said. During those periods, she stays with friends, she said.
Some hotel apartments have also asked her to pay in advance for long stays, she said. Although she said she has considered the alternatives – living in Dubai or a villa with too many rooms for her needs – she said she is waiting for the market to open in Abu Dhabi as she needs to be close to her clients. “Commuting within the city is difficult enough. I can’t imagine adding a few hours commute on top of that.”
Although rent prices have plateaued in the capital after a year of frantic increases, accommodation remains hard to come by. According to last quarter’s report by Landmark Advisory, a division of the Dubai-based estate agent, Landmark Properties, rent increased by an estimated 80 per cent in 2008.
Some residents have spent months looking for flats and rooms with little success. The problem has become so dire that it is now common for employees in Abu Dhabi to commute from Dubai or Al Ain, where the rents are cheaper and flats more available.
At the recent Gulf Incentives Business Travel and Meetings Exhibitions, organisers began to complain openly about hotel prices in Abu Dhabi.
According to a report released by Deloitte, a global consultancy firm, hotel prices and occupancy rates are on a par with those in New York, London, Dubai and Paris.
Average hotel occupancy 2008 was 81 per cent, and the average room rates increased by 34 per cent to an average of $283 per night.
One of the problems stymying Abu Dhabi’s desire to become a regional business tourism centre is its high hotel rates, said Paul Kennedy, the exhibition director of GIBTM, during the conference.
Abu Dhabi has about 13,000 hotel rooms, with plans to increase its stock to 25,000 by 2012.
At the Fortune Hotel Apartments, the salesman Martin D’Souza said between 80 and 90 per cent of the guests were long-term occupants. They generally stayed between one month and a year.
However, the loaded housing market has not yet benefited conventional hotels as they tend to demand higher prices.
Adel Eid, the general manager of the Novotel, said most of his guests were businessmen who stayed for an average of five nights. “You might be starting to see some of the guests in hotel apartments moving to hotels of a five-star nature once rates begin to come down,” he said.
Although rates are high and hotels are full, things may change dramatically. The Landmark study predicted as many as 14,850 units will be completed by the end of 2010. In particular, the high end market will be flooded with apartments, forcing prices down.
Out of the sea, a city is rising
ABU DHABI - APR 13: Just a year ago, Sowwah Island was an empty patch of desert off the waters of the Beach Rotana hotel shaped like a pair of lips.
Now the 117-hectare island is a hive of construction activity, with towers starting to jut out of the ground and a constant stream of lorries.
“It’s a Manhattan in the making,” says John Thomas, the executive director of Mubadala Real Estate & Hospitality, the master developer of the project. “This is the heart of the new central business district.”
Sowwah is planned to be a kind of nerve centre for the “new Abu Dhabi” that is taking shape in large part on islands near the north-eastern corner of the main island. It will have more than 30,000 residents and 80,000 office workers by day.
The Abu Dhabi Plan 2030 calls for it to be the “focus of the skyline profile and the summit of office density” in the constellation of projects that includes Al Mina and Reem Island.
A testament to Sowwah’s centrality for the capital are plans for 13 bridges to connect it to Reem Island and Abu Dhabi island on either side.
Two are scheduled to be finished by the end of this year and beginning of 2010. Mubadala is hiring architects to give each one a distinctive design.
Initial drawings show one bridge with an arch in the middle and another with a pointed sculptural flourish that rises into the sky.
“A lot of the inter-Abu Dhabi traffic will come through the island,” Mr Thomas says, adding that the bridges were positioned to connect with the grid layout of the main island. “The island plays a broader function for Abu Dhabi as a whole.”
The first bridge, for instance, will connect directly with Al Falah Street.
Sowwah Island will eventually be joined to its neighbours by 13 bridges, which will link into the existing road network. Courtesy Mubadala Real Estate & Hospitality
The part of the island that can be seen rising from the ground is Sowwah Square, a group of four office buildings and the new home of the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.
Some of the buildings have already reached the ninth of an eventual 30 storeys. They will be ready for occupation by the end of 2010.
The towers will have automatic shades on the outside that adjust according the angle of the sun, and double-glazing to keep offices well-lit but not overheated.
At the centre will stand the stock exchange, resting on four concrete stilts 20 metres above a pond and surrounded by shops, restaurants and cafes.
Nearby, foundation and piling work has started for the Cleveland Clinic, which will be one of Abu Dhabi’s most advanced health care centres.
So far, says Mr Thomas, the global financial crisis has not had a major impact on the development of the island. Mubadala is still working out its strategy for selling plots of land and through its partner, John Buck International, finding companies to lease the space that will become available in the short term.
A year ago, the available space had all been pre-reserved, but the economic downturn of the past year has presented problems for some of the potential clients.
“I’d be lying if I said the financial crisis hasn’t affected our leasers,” he says. “We are focusing on these tenants. Some of them are having to re-evaluate.”
For all the towers and scaffolding, the most dramatic work is being done out of sight, at the infrastructure level. On Sowwah Island, for example, a 14-metre-high concrete platform at Sowwah Square and Cleveland Clinic will conceal parking, service roads and utilities.
“We are not so much focused on the individual buildings that will populate this island, but with the long-term evolution of the island,” Mr Thomas says.
There will be air-conditioned passageways, allowing pedestrians to walk around the island during the hot months. Underground roads are intended to ensure the island does not get too congested and reduce air pollution for those at surface level.
The island also fits into Abu Dhabi’s larger transportation plan. It will have stops on the metro system and light rapid transit line, as well as bicycle lanes and pedestrian walkways along the boardwalk and throughout the middle of the island. The goal, says Mr Thomas, is to keep the island from being overrun with cars.
Sustainability is a theme for the project, according to the developer.
Mubadala announced yesterday that it had been awarded the Leadership in Environment and Environmental Design gold pre-certification for its infrastructure work. As the master developer, it will require other developers on the island to meet similar standards for water, energy and waste.
“If the bones of the island make sense, then the rest will be functional and sustainable,” says Mr Thomas. “We are interested in the efficiency of the design as opposed to the egos of the developer.”
Sowwah Island will also have a “spine of greenery that runs throughout the island”.
The developer has hired Martha Schwarz, a Massachusetts-based landscape designer, to come up with a “complete landscape philosophy” for the island.
She has previously crafted landscape masterplans for the Baltimore Inner Harbour in Maryland, Blackfriars Road in London and the Detmold Redevelopment in Germany.
“We don’t want something ad hoc,” he says. “We want this to be the best office space in the Middle East, period.”