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Tuesday July 21 2009
Ajman’s largest residential property project will go ahead at just a
fraction of its original size, after the developer cancelled more than
180 towers in response to a downturn in investor demand.
Marmooka
City, the largest planned community along Emirates Road in Ajman, has
been scaled back from 206 towers to just 20 buildings.
From the dozen developments that have been launched over the past
two years along the highway, Marmooka City is the first one that has
revised deals with sub-developers to adapt to the market downturn. The
fate of the remaining projects along the highway, which have yet to
start construction, is unclear.
Marmooka City, planned as a
luxury suburban development with 206 residential and commercial
buildings, was meant to house the tallest tower in the emirate, along
with a school, clinics, a large shopping mall and five-star hotels.
The project was originally due for completion next year, but instead
has become one of the biggest casualties of a property slump which has
seen the cancellation of developments worth billions of dollars across
the Emirates.
Now Marmooka City has been scaled back to just 20
plots, according to a senior official at Real Estate Investment
Establishment (REIE), the master developer.
“We have cancelled
170 contracts,” said the official who declined to be named. “As for the
remaining plots, some of them had not been sold and were vacant, and
the others belong to developers who are either in prison or have left
the country. Maybe we will take them to the court, or we might register
a case. We will see.”
Manara Ajman, intended to be the tallest tower in Ajman, with 95
floors, was to be built by Al Barakah, the property developer. But the
chief executive of the company is in jail in Dubai for allegedly
bouncing cheques to investors. The owner of another development
company, Casamia Star, has disappeared and investors have recently
filed complaints with the police and the Ajman Real Estate Regulatory
Authority (ARRA).
The REIE official said the plots of developers who intended to go
ahead with their projects had been relocated into phase one. The
remaining plots would be resold, he said.
Developers have paid
more than Dh1 billion (US$272 million) so far for land within the
planned Marmooka project, but will not be fully refunded for projects
that have been scrapped. They will get back only part of what they have
paid for projects that they have cancelled and nothing in cash.
Source: The National
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