Nakheel has awarded a contract to build the Dh1.4 billion The Palm Gateway triple tower and beach complex above the Palm Gateway monorail station to a joint venture between Ssangyong Engineering & Construction (Ssangyong E&C) and China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC).
The developer said that work on the project is set to begin by the end of March, and that it will take two years to build, completing in the first quarter of 2018. The project will contain 1,265 apartments in three high-rise buildings. Apartments will range in size from one to three bedrooms and will be retained by Nakheel to generate leasehold income.
The entire complex will have a gross floor area of 5.5 million square feet. The tallest tower will be the 285 metre, 59-storey Tubular Tower. There will also be two, 205-metre, 48-floor towers – Central Tower and Beach Tower.
They will sit on top of the existing monorail station building, which already has 14 levels of parking, but 32 beach-facing apartments and 16 duplexes will be added to this, alongside retail, dining and health and fitness units.
The contract win for South Korean contractor Ssangyong E&C is the third major Dubai project it has picked in the past few weeks.
This week, The National revealed that the company had been appointed as part of a joint venture with Besix to deliver the US$1.4bn Royal Atlantis hotel on the opposite end of Palm Jumeirah and last month it was revealed as one half of the joint venture building the $1bn ICD Brookfield Place tower in DIFC alongside Brookfield Multiplex.
Ssangyong E&C was bought by sovereign wealth fund the Investment Corporation of Dubai 12 months ago in a deal worth 200 billion Korean won (Dh666.7 million).
Ssangyong E&C’s Middle East managing director Joon Hun Kim said this week that its “short-term and long-term strategy” for winning new work across the region would be through joint ventures.
“If we are a pure Korean contractor, it is not easy,” he said. “Most Korean contractors have gone alone for big contracts. Now, they are in trouble.
“We want certain harmonies between Ssangyong and other local leading contractors to make up a winning strategy.”
mfahy@thenational.ae
Follow The National's Business section on Twitter