Hotel to complete Aldar WTC project

Aldar's World Trade Center Abu Dhabi project will be completed and handed over to the last main tenant, a four-star hotel, next year.

Work on Aldar's World Trade Centre project in the capital should be completed this summer. Lee Hoagland / The National

Aldar's World Trade Center project in Abu Dhabi will be completed and handed over next year to the last main tenant, a four-star hotel.

Located on the five-hectare site of the old outdoor market, which was destroyed by a fire in 2002, the development also features a souq and a shopping centre called The Mall, in addition to offices and apartments.

The Souq, formerly known as Central Market, at the World Trade Center (WTC), has been open since 2011 and was the first part of the project to be finished.

The Mall at WTC, which is built in the same architectural style, will follow in the third quarter of this year. It will be anchored by the British House of Fraser store and features about 160 shops totalling about 60,000 square metres of leasable space.

"Our competition is that mid-market [space]," said Patrick Bell, the WTC's director of development.

"We have a few luxury offerings within House of Fraser but I think it is the diversity of what we offer from the Souq all the way to House of Fraser. That's unique."

Work to kit out a 59-storey office tower featuring 72,000 sq metres of space is finished from Aldar's side and the building could welcome people in September or October, said Mr Bell.

"We fitted out the space to a good grade category A, which is basically ceilings, floors, lighting and air conditioning.

"Any tenant coming in [has to create] partitions and [add] furniture, so hopefully that's a quick process."

The show apartments in the residence tower, which is the tallest building in Abu Dhabi, should be on line about the same time. But the first tenants in the 98-floor, 474-apartment building will probably not move in until at least January, said Mr Bell.

"The crane is about to come down, so most of the cladding is done now. A lot of the lower floors are substantially complete in terms of fitting out bathrooms and kitchens," he said. "They have started the testing and commissioning, but with 98 floors there is a lot of testing and commissioning to be done."

The remaining element, a four-star Courtyard by Marriott hotel, would probably be handed over in the second quarter of next year.