Dubai hotel refurb projects to be big business

The number of hotel refurbishment projects in Dubai is expected to dramatically increase in the run-up to Expo 2020.

Speaking today at the Construction Week UAE Infrastructure Summit 2014, Faithful+Gould country director UAE and head of project management, Tom Hasker, said the company had seen an increase in activity in the hospitality construction sector.

Specifically, he identified more demand for hotel refurbishments.

“Upwards of 10,000 rooms [in Dubai] need to be refurbished [by 2020],” said Hasker, adding that this posed particular challenges to contractors.

"In most cases, hotels will wish to continue trading during a refurbishment project. How to manage a project while the hotel remains operational will be a challenge," he said.

“It is a specialist sector,” observed Hasker. “I think that’s another area where we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of refurbished works.”

At present, Hasker said Faithful+Gould is working on 13 hospitality projects in total.

“We anticipate a very busy sector over the next six years,” he said.

Al Shafar General Contracting chief executive officer Bishoy Azmy agreed, revealing that the company had worked on more hospitality projects in the past two years that in its previous 23 years of operation.

“30% of tenders for buildings are for hotels,” said Azmy. “We are pricing four hotels on The Palm alone.”

The company has recently handed over the luxury Waldorf Astoria Dubai Palm Jumeirah hotel.

Colliers International head of asset management Selim El Zein estimated that Dubai needed to double hotel room stock to around 150,000 units in order to meet Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing’s (DTCM) target of attracting 20mn visitors by 2020.

El Zein said location would be vital to future hotel development, with new five-star hotels to be located in Business Bay, four- and three-star hotels to be developed in Al Barsha and Bur Dubai, and three-star hotels to be focused in Deira and Bur Dubai.

Dubai currently comprises around 87,000 rooms and has just hit record hotel guest numbers of more than 11mn in 2013, according to DTCM.

The Construction Week UAE Infrastructure UAE Summit is being held on 5 March at Grosvenor House Dubai, sponsored by Hyder Consulting, Drake & Scull, GTCC and Pinsent Masons. It is supported by Dubai Municipality.