Sphere-shaped restaurant coming to Dubai Creek

In addition to the world’s tallest twin towers, Dubai’s latest master development will also include a sphere-shaped restaurant venue among the eight million square feet of retail and hospitality space planned at the Dubai Creek site.

Launched by Burj Khalifa developer Emaar Properties and investment firm Dubai Holding on Monday, rendering for the multi-million project known as Dubai Creek Harbour at The Lagoons included a sphere-shaped venue located at the end of a long pier.

Enquiries by Arabian Business to Emaar confirmed the venue will be a food and beverage outlet but it declined to release any further details on its plans for it.

However, it appears to be similar to the 360 venue located near Jumeirah Beach Hotel and accessed via a jetty from the marina area.

The outlet will be part of plans for the master development which will include 3664 office units, 8 million square feet of retail and hospitality space, 39,000 residential units and 22 hotels with 4400 rooms.

This is in addition to the centrepiece: The Dubai Twin towers, which will be the tallest twin towers in the world.

The first phase of the development will be Dubai Creek Residences, which will include six towers – two of which will be 40-storeys in height - with a variety of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments that will have unit area ranging between 880 – 2,154 square feet.

This project will take 18 months to complete and will cost around AED3 billion ($817 million) to build, Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Properties, told Al Arabiya TV in an interview.

"This is greatest spot in the world for one to come in and be creative and add something that something that's so special for the citizens of this country,” Alabbar told reporters. “It (the creek) was the only story of where Dubai is and where it came from and which way it's going.”

In terms of funding for the project was in place, Alabbar claimed: “The balance sheets of both companies [Emaar and Dubai Holding] is healthy so we don't see any issue of how we face a project and move forward with market demands.”

Mat Green, head of research and consultancy UAE at CBRE Middle East commented on the project: “The launch of the multi-million dollar Dubai Creek Harbour project at The Lagoons reflects the positive sentiment in the UAE market. On the back of strong economic fundamentals prevailing in the emirate, property developers have launched a number of mega projects over the past 18 months including the Mall of the World, Dubai Water Canal, Deira Islands, amongst others. It’s clear that current expectations for Dubai’s property market continue to grow and we expect that demand levels remain high in the build up to the World Expo in six years’ time.”