Depa, the interior contractor that fitted out Dubai's Burj Khalifa, will complete the first phase of a US$25m refit of the Radisson Blu hotel in Doha by the end of October, with the refurbishment due to be fully completed by April 2013, the general manager of the hotel told Arabian Business on Thursday.


“We just approved the final mock-up room [for the final phase] and we should have the first three floors complete by the mid to end of October in our existing west wing in the Radisson Blu,” Gordon MacKenzie said in an interview.


The refurbishment of the 324 rooms at Qatar’s largest food and beverage hotel venue will be fully completed by the end of April 2013, MacKenzie confirmed.

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Ghanem Al Thani Holdings, owner of the Radisson Blu Hotel Doha, which changed operators from the Ramada brand in July, is also building a water-themed hotel in the centre of the Qatari capital.


Started in April 2010, construction is due to be completed in late 2013 and MacKenzie said an operator was due to be appointed by mid October.


"We don’t have a beach [at Radisson Blu Doha], but we are going to rectify that with our new hotel. We are having a beach there in the middle of the city centre,” MacKenzie said in an interview with Arabian Business in March. “It will be a water-themed hotel… With water at the front, a river runs all the way through reception [under a] glass floor, all the way out the back, to culminate in a waterfall and a wave pool.


“It will be absolutely magic. It will be a man-made beach… It is going to be fun, it will be challenging and it will be an attraction,” he added.


The 360-room property will have banqueting facilities for 2,400 people and will also include golfing facilities.


“It will also have an 18-hole putting green… The majority of hotels go down to nine holes, but we are going the full 18,” MacKenzie said.