Nakheel signs deal for all-inclusive resort on Deira Islands

Deal with family-owned Spanish operator will see US$170 million, 750-room Deira Islands resort open in 2019.

Nakheel has signed a deal with Spain's Riu Hotels & Resorts to develop a US$170 million resort at its Deira Islands project.

The joint venture deal between the Dubai developer Nakheel and family-owned Riu will involve the opening of a 750-room, 24-hour, all-inclusive family resort on Deira Islands.

The deal was signed by the Nakheel chairman Ali Rashid Lootah and the Riu chief executive Luis Riu in Palma, Mallorca.

Mr Riu said the signing of the partnership “represents another step towards making the first Riu project in the Middle East a reality”.

It operates more than 100 ­hotels in Europe, North Africa, the Caribbean and Central America and has nearly 28,000 employees.

Mr Lootah said that the deal would “introduce one of the world’s biggest, most respected names in hospitality and an entirely new concept in hotel accommodation to Dubai”.

The hotel is set to open in 2019 and is the first agreed for Deira Islands, the former Palm Deira project that was relaunched by Nakheel in 2013. It will contain four islands with facilities including a marina, a large mall, a night market with 5,300 shops and an amphitheatre.

The Dutch dredging firm Van Oord was awarded a Dh387m contract to shape two of the four islands, creating 23.5 kilometres of coastline, last June. Its work is due to complete in June 2017.

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