Dubai Festival City

Dubai Festival City logo

Dubai Festival City (Arabic: دبي فستيفال سيتي‎‎) is a large residential, business and entertainment development in the city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Touted as a "city-within-a-city", Dubai Festival City is the Middle East's largest mixed-use development: all elements for work, living, and leisure will be contained within the project. Once completed Festival City will comprise a series of residential communities, numerous hotels, malls, a golf course and other entertainment sites, and a full suite of public services, including schools.

Description

Dubai Festival City at night

Construction of the development, which was undertaken by Al Futtaim Carillion,^[1] began in 2003 and is expected to take 12 years. The project spans 3.8 kilometres (2.4 mi) of water frontage on the eastern bank of Dubai Creek and is 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) from Dubai International Airport. As of mid-2006, investments in the project had exceeded 11 billion AED (3 billion USD).^[2]

Hotels

The development includes two hotels and a long term stay serviced apartment complex, all managed by InterContinental Hotels Group. In July 2009, Intercontinental took over management of the Al Badia Golf Course. Future developments include the 400-room Four Seasons Hotel Dubai, but construction of both hotels was put on hold in January 2009 due to the Global financial crisis of 2008–2009.^[3]