United Arab Emirates: 25/10/2006
Nakheel unfazed by project delay
Dubai: Nakheel's chief executive insists the company has no regrets about The Palm Jumeirah, despite facing design problems and completion delays.
Dubai-based Nakheel, which has a property portfolio of $30 billion (Dh110.34 billion), says it will hand-over 500 properties by the end of the month - up to six months after the planned delivery date.
By April, 3,000 of the 3,900 apartments and villas - valued at up to $4.3 million apiece - will be ready for hand-over, including all shoreline apartments on the east side of the trunk.
The remaining properties will be delivered soon after completion certificates are issued in June, the company says.
"The original completion date was May 2006, there was an extension to November and we've extended it further to ensure the infrastructure is complete and the quality of the villas. It is well within the bounds of the contractual arrangement," Nakheel CEO Chris O'Donnell told Gulf News.
"With a project of this nature with so many challenges and unknowns, I'd much rather extend the date to ensure that the customer experience is right, rather than keep to a date that has been set."
No compensation is being offered to buyers on The Palm Jumeirah. Instead, owners may sell their villa back to Nakheel for the original sale price, plus interest. "No one has taken up the offer yet," said O'Donnell.
Villas on The Palm Jumeirah went on sale in 2002 for between $700,000 and $1.25 million. They have been advertised for resale for $1.6 million to $4.3 million.
Since land reclamation began in August 2001 rumours emerged that villas were subsiding, allegations O'Donnell strongly denies.
"I'm not aware of any settlement problems that we've had on the island at all," he said. "The virbro-compaction compacted the land mass and there's no major movement issues at all that we're experiencing."
But he admitted the overall design was "tweaked" to deal with issues such as sand deposits due to poor water circulation.
"Two openings on either side in the middle of the breakwater were put in to allow greater water movement. There wasn't a huge amount of movement in the area between each frond so we put in pools which force water movement. The water issues have definitely been resolved," he said.
The Palm's luxury villas have come in for criticism for being placed too close together.
O'Donnell said the density was acceptable "compared to other beachside locations in major cities in the world" and would be the same for villas on The Palm Deira and The Palm Jebel Ali.
According to O'Donnell, Nakheel has gained from The Palm experience.
"If there's one thing I would have done differently if I was here five years ago I would have put in place the permanent roads and infrastructure as my first priority.
"But I still think it's miraculous that here we are 60 months on and we will have the first residents moving onto The Palm and living here. That in itself is a miracle considering where this has come from."
- With inputs from Bloomberg
