Dubai’s $5 bn real estate project envisions a 900-foot moon-like resort
To add new heights to the skyscraper-studded Dubai, Canadian entrepreneur Michael Henderson has proposed a $5 billion real estate project which aims at creating a moon-like resort.
Henderson has envisioned building the moon's 900-foot replica atop a 100-foot building present in Dubai, a city which already boasts of the world’s tallest building as well as other architectural wonders.
Henderson believes that his ambitious project, which has been named MOON and will be funded by Moon World Resorts Inc is not that far-fetched.
“We have the biggest ‘brand’ in the world,” said Henderson, while speaking to The Associated Press, as he alluded that the moon itself was his brand. “Eight billion people know our brand, and we haven’t even started yet,” he added.
Henderson's project has proposed the inclusion of a destination resort which will be inside the spherical structure, which will look like a moon.
The resort will have a 4,000-room hotel as well as an arena capable which can host 10,000 people and a “lunar colony” where people would be provided with the experience of walking on the moon.
The MOON will be placed on a pedestal-like circular building and will glow during nighttime. The project was discussed by Henderson at the Arabian Travel Market earlier in May in Dubai.
Artists illustrate MOON at various locations
Moon World Resorts have already commissioned artists who have illustrated the ambitious MOON at different locations which include Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world at a height of 2,710 feet.
Some have even placed the resort at the Dubai Pearl which is a long-dormant project and is now facing destruction near the man-made Palm Jumeirah archipelago and its unfinished sister, the Palm Jebel Ali.
The Pearl and the Palm Jebel Ali are the two “white elephant” projects which have been left unfinished from the 2009 financial crisis that rocked the country and forced United Arab Emirates' Abu Dhabi to bail out Dubai with $20 billion.
Now after 15 years, Dubai's fate has turned around. On average, rents across Dubai have increased by 26.9 per cent year-on-year, even after anti-price-gouging protections. Last year, Dubai saw 86,849 residential sales which crossed the previous year's record of 80,831 from 2009.
Dubai's prominent real estate agency Allsopp & Allsopp CEO Lewis Allsopp said, “Dubai is in a completely different world compared to” 2009. Launched products are “selling out on the spot.”
Speaking about the project, Middle East expert and author of the book “From Sheikhs to Sultanism” Christopher Davidson said that like high-profile and eye-catching architectural marvels, the MOON can fit well into “the legitimacy formula of Dubai’s ruling elite”.
