Dh1 billion Paramount-themed Dubai tower will have own movie screen

Damac Properties has awarded the Dh1 billion order to build the luxury hotel in Dubai to Turkey’s TAV Construction.

Above, a rendering of the Paramount-branded Damac luxury hotel. The US$1-billion hotel and residential towers project is the first from Paramount in the region. Courtesy Damac Properties

Damac Properties has awarded the Dh1 billion order to build its Paramount-branded luxury hotel in Dubai to Turkey's TAV Construction.

The contractor’s Dubai unit will build Damac Towers by Paramount near Burj Khalifa, the single largest contract Damac has ever awarded. The Istanbul-headquartered company is a member of global airport brand TAV Group.

Damac’s contract with TAV Tepe Akfen Investment Construction and Operation is expected to run for 33 months.

The Dubai property market is rebounding, with apartment rents up by as much as 38 per cent year-on-year. Villas have gained about 24 per cent over the same period.

Standard Chartered said last week that the outlook for property remained positive. GDP growth is forecast to hover around 3.2 per cent until 2015, driven by logistics, tourism and retail businesses.

Damac Towers is the first development from Paramount in the region. One of the four towers of the project will house a 540-room Paramount Hotel, while the other three will hold about 1,000 residences under the Damac Maison and Paramount brands. Damac Maison, which is the developer’s hospitality division, launched in 2011, provides serviced apartments to wealthy consumers.

It would also include themed restaurants, meeting and events facilities, a screening room, fitness centres, swimming pools and retail space. Paramount Pictures, one of the large film production and distribution houses of Hollywood, will not invest in the project but will lend its name to the development.

Residents will get access to a Paramount movies library and a room that will screen films such as The Godfather, Breakfast at Tiffany's and Titanic. The project is expected to be finished by 2016.

Themed residentials have been central to a strategy to attract tourists and push the retail and property sectors. The vast Dubailand development, originally announced in 2003, included a number of large-scale themed projects, many of which fell victim to the 2008-09 financial crisis.

Now, some are being revived as tourist numbers grow and economic confidence returns.

Tourism in Dubai has continued to grow back to 2008 levels. In the first half of this year alone, the emirate attracted 5.5 million visitors, up by 11 per cent over the same period last year. In whole of 2008, the emirate welcomed 7.5 million hotel guests. Its aim to double the number by 2015, however, is a long way off.

The market for apartments has returned, with apartments now selling for 12 per cent more and leasing for 7 per cent more than in the first quarter, according to the Standard Chartered report.

It is also building the 28 million square foot project called Akoya by Damac, which is to include mansions, villas and apartments, off Umm Sequim Road in Dubai.