Dubai Travel Guide

As Dubai gets ready to become the first Gulf city to introduce a rapid transit system, a debate is raging on the impact of leasing naming rights of metro stations to companies from across the world.

The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has placed advertisements in a number of prominent American and European magazines to invite bidders.

Officials are excited that Dubai Metro will be the first in the world to lease naming rights of stations and both Red and Green lines to companies.

But residents are not pleased. Many in the city believe that the identity of the city could be ruined by this exercise.

Dubai Institute of Technology, the Science and Technology arm for TechnoPark and Economic Zones World, a new member of the International Network for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (INSME) has been selected as key co-organiser for the 2009 INSME Annual Meeting, to be held for the first time in Dubai.

The two parties, mandated to encourage technological development via entrepreneurship, will also nurture cooperation agreements between INSME members and companies within TechnoPark.

Speaking about TechnoPark’s commitment to the SME community, Hamad Al Hashemi, Managing Director of TechnoPark, stated: “We completely support INSME’s efforts to act as a facilitator for innovation-led growth. A fundamental cornerstone of our activities is to aid the SME community and we have set up the Dubai Institute of Technology (DIT) to create a self-sustained environment within the park to support the development of new technologies, the establishment of high potential technology start-ups, and delivering relevant services to the private and public sectors.”
(more…)

Dubai’s latest mind-boggling project will be yet another global first - a fully rotating tower powered by the sun.

Project engineers say the Dh400 million Time Residences tower in the City of Arabia master development will turn through 360 degrees, its rotation mechanism driven by stored solar energy.

The project, which will put 200 apartments onto the market, is another addition to Dubai’s list of world exclusives which will include the world’s tallest tower, biggest mall and largest man-made island - even a collection of dozens of man-made islands dubbed The World.

In July, Dubai-based High Rise Real estate launched the Rotating Tower, a Dh175 million project in Jumeirah Village South featuring four rotating penthouses and a rotating villa with its own car lift.

Dubai Property Ring, developer of the 30-floor Time Residences, says it has gone one step better by launching a fully rotating structure.

“We didn’t want to build just another building or tower, we wanted to create something unique - a precious place to live - a genuine contender to be one of the great buildings in the world,” said Tav Singh, director of Dubai Property Ring, the Dubai arm of UK-based property investors UK Property Group.

Singh said the company plans to build 23 more rotating towers in each of the world’s time zones with finance provided by investors linked to the company.

The Time Residences tower will include one- and two-bedroom apartments as well as duplexes and penthouses. Singh said unit prices have not been released, but sales are expected to start in March 2007. Buyers’ payments will be held in an account managed by Dubai Property Ring and Colliers International, master agents for the project.

The project is the company’s first foray into property development, forcing it to take on the services of established names in their respective fields.

The tower was designed by UK architecture firm, Glenn Howells Architects (the company behind the Birmingham Rotunda in the UK) and Palmer and Turner, the master developers of City of Arabia.

(more…)