The Palm Jumeirah Jewel Dubai

By Richard Oakley
Posted on 2008-08-31
Dubai is a modern centre of finest innovations, especially in terms of massive infrastructures and real estate. With the completion of the group of three artificial islands known as Palm Jumeira, praised as the jewel of Dubai, it has taken the ultimate in luxury and comfort for the billionaires of the world.
Dubai’s famous ‘Palms’ – the vast, man-made archipelagos shaped like palm trees and crammed with mod-con real estate stretches for miles into the Arabian Gulf. The islands were commissioned by Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, in order to increase Dubai’s tourism. The creation of the Palm Jumeirah began in June 2001 and was completed in 2007.
Just six years ago, the spot on which Palm Jumeirah was constructed would have been 30 ft underwater and two miles out to sea. But seven million tons of rock and 94 million cubic metres of dredged-up sand later, it is now Palm Jumeirah. It has given Dubai an extra 80 kilometres of coastline. And this is just the baby of Dubai’s offshore projects with two larger ‘islands’ to follow and is arguably the largest and most ambitious building site in the world.
To comprehend the scale of it all, you have to see it from the air. It is exactly the shape of a palm tree and a huge, circular eleven-kilometre breakwater that will house 30 luxury hotels protects it. Every branch or “frond” of this palm tree is a mile long, sealed off from the outside world and packed on both sides with substantial houses, all of which have their own pool and beach. The main trunk of the palm is connected to the mainland by a six-lane bridge. Arching off the trunk are 16 fronds.
At the base is a cluster of apartment blocks with 1,000 flats and a building site, which will shortly become the ‘Golden Mile’. Standing astride all this will be a 60-storey, two-legged skyscraper built by Donald Trump and called – with his trademark modesty - the Trump Tower. At the outermost point, they are building the largest hotel in the Middle East, the 1,500-bed Atlantis that rises through the haze like a colossal strawberry blancmange.
When these houses went on the market in 2002 - long before there was any land, let alone a show home - they were snapped up in days. There is a certain uniformity to the houses. Original investors had the option of a 7,000 sq ft ‘signature’ villa or a 5,000 sq ft ‘garden’ villa and a limited choice of architectural styles such as Mediterranean or Arab. Signature villas (seven bedrooms and 130 ft of beach frontage) were priced at $1,320,000 and garden villas (five bedrooms and 65 ft of beach frontage) were pitched at $860,000. Today in 2008, the developers have now handed over the keys and the market value of a ‘signature’ home is now $6 million and a ‘garden’ villa will fetch upwards of $3 million.
The Palm Jumeirah reeks with celebrities. Not far from the football hero David and Victoria Beckhams’ signature home on Frond K, sits the holiday home of former Formula One world champion, Michael Schumacher.
His sporting celebrity has granted him a “tip plot” the much sought after end point of a frond.
Most of these belong to members of various royal houses in the region. For example, a member of the ruling clan of Abu Dhabi, the al-Nahyans, owns another ‘tip plot’ further down, just opposite one belonging to a member of Dubai’s royal family, the al-Maktoums. Over on Frond O, Hamid Karzai, president of landlocked Afghanistan, has his bolthole beside the sea.
The Palm Jumeirah contains two identical artificial islands of 140 thousand cubic meters (4.9 million cubic feet) in the shape of The Palm’s logo (a wispy palm leaf) on either side of its trunk. These islands will be personal islands for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
If you get bored with your own pool and beach, you will be able to hop on a monorail to one of the largest water theme parks in the world. And if you get bored with water, there will soon be a gigantic shopping mall and a rather familiar-looking pier-cum-entertainment centre attached to the outer breakwater. It is called the QE2 (Queen Elizabeth 2) once the largest luxury (70000 tonnes weight with accommodation for 3500 passengers) passenger ship in the world. The onetime “Queen of the seas” has been bought by a local developer for $100 million and will spend the rest of her days here staging cabaret nights and gala buffets for the perma-tanned hordes.
The two sister islands of Palm Jumeirah, namely The Palm Jebel Ali was announced and reclamation work began in 2002. In 2004 The Palm Deira, was announced. Construction will be completed over the next 10-15 years.
In Dubai everything is big, and what isn’t will sooner or later be, as the emirate relentlessly aims to offer the world a superlative of all man-made creations. From a capitalist perception, it is a great example of how to turn dwindling oil reserves into progressive economic growth through trade and tourism. MF