International City - a mega project in the boom town Dubai

Drees & Sommer Gulf FZ LLC have been commissioned with comprehensive project management services for the International City, which is to become a centre within Dubai for commerce as well as residential, trade and tourist institutions. With 800 hectares, the city-like project of Dubai's largest project developer Nakheel (The Palm, The World, Dubai Waterfront) is the currently largest construction project of Drees & Sommer. The project - with a volume of ca. 6,9 Billion Dirham (1,9 Billion Dollar) is scheduled for completion within the next three years.

To realise management of the International City, about 50 staff will work on location, half of which will come from Germany. Directly after Nakheel had commissioned Drees & Sommer in December 2004, the first experts travelled to Dubai to form a task force to directly assume project management. Sensibility was needed to arrange the project, which has already begun, and implement project planning. Individual sub-projects, according to their status, are controlled against high-pressure deadlines in the planning phase as well as tender and execution phase. Individual sub-projects are already finished. Procedures thus have to be coordinated as to avoid disturbances of construction companies and tenants.

The area of the International City is divided into six zones: the Central District, the Dubai Design Centre, the Dragon Mart, the residential district, the Lake District and the Forbidden City.
The buildings of the residential district and the Lake District comprise a gross floor space of overall 3,3 million square metres and are segmented into different thematic areas. Apartment blocks are built in Chinese, Persian, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Russian, Moroccan, Thai and Indonesian style. The ca. 21.000 residential units, between 44 and 66 square metres each, will be built to medium standard and can, if required, be connected with each other.
On ca. 1 million square metres, the Dubai Design Centre (DDC) will offer Dubai's residents a mix of exhibition and exposition establishments as well as furniture stores, design malls and home depots.
The first specialised trade centre of the International City, the Dragon Mart, was already opened in December 2004. The complex - erected in form of a Chinese dragon with a total length of 1,4 kilometres - has already become the biggest commercial centre for Chinese products outside China.
The Forbidden City is a replica of the famous Peking Forbidden City and houses leisure and cultural establishments with museums and event halls. Visitors will also be able to use restaurants, shops and a large park in Chinese tradition.

For Drees & Sommer, the new contract means the breakthrough on markets of the United Arab Emirates and the entire golf region. Stephan Konzelmann, Managing Director of the Drees & Sommer Gulf comments: "The potential of civil engineering projects in the golf region is enormous, and the implementation of professional project management in increasingly complex projects is realised successfully." The office of Drees & Sommer Gulf was founded in Dubai in 2003 and, amongst others, handles a civil engineering project in Dubai, the major project "flower of the east" on the Iranian Island of Kish and a development project in Fujairah. 

PDF
Word