When Limitless was formed in 2005, it was designed to be the overseas property counterpart to its Dubai World sister company, Nakheel. Saeed Ahmed Saeed, a former managing director of projects at Nakheel, became its chief executive and quickly set about buying land for ambitious developments in countries such as Jordan, Russia and Vietnam.

One of the Arabian Canal’s excavation points. Limitless took over the project from Nakheel. Jumana el Heloueh / Reuters

But such was the demand for property in Dubai at the time that Limitless also sought to rejuvenate the Jebel Ali area with its US$11 billion (Dh40.4bn) Downtown Jebel Ali.

Launched in late 2006, about 250 plots at the sprawling development were snapped up by equally ambitious subdevelopers, with the remit to build hundreds of homes, offices and shops.

Limitless, in the meantime, provided the land and infrastructure.

The only project the company built at the development is The Galleries, an eight-building mix of office space and apartments. It is also the company’s only completed asset today. It said in February it had 220 staff, down from 500 at its peak.

As sales of waterfront properties heated up, Limitless also took over development of the Arabian Canal, a proposed 75km waterway valued at Dh40.3bn and a 14,000 hectare city valued at Dh118.3bn.

The canal idea was originally conceived by Nakheel, which was busy dredging sand in order to create island hubs such as the Palm islands and The World.

Although construction of the waterway began in the latter half of 2008, the work stalled within months. The timing of the financial crisis was therefore perhaps fortunate for the Arabian Canal project because Limitless had yet to begin selling plots of land, minimising its exposure.

The global crisis also put the brakes on the company’s expansion overseas at a time when the only project that had started construction was Sanaya Amman, a Dh1.1bn twin-tower residential development in the heart of Amman, Jordan.

With the similarities between Nakheel and Limitless, both in terms of their history and the problems they are now encountering in Dubai, the announcement on Saturday that Nakheel will take over the running of Limitless makes sense, analysts say.

As Dubai World tackles the repayment of Dh86.31bn of debt, the realignment is “aimed at setting united strategies and programmes to deal with the real estate sector”, the Dubai Media Office said. Limitless declined to comment further.

The move came less than a week after Nakheel said it would resume work on Jumeirah Park, Al Furjan, Jumeirah Village, Jumeirah Islands Mansions, Jumeirah Heights Clusters and Al Badrah as it settles outstanding bills with contractors.

“This is a time when Nakheel is rationalising projects,” says Nabil Ahmed, the regional head of research at Deutsche Bank. “So I’m not so surprised that a single management team should take over pretty much everything in the real estate sector, making sure they are consolidating sales and moving ahead only with projects that are near completion and economically viable.”

Rizwan Shah, the director of capital projects at Deloitte, the consultancy firm, says when it comes to repaying its creditors, Limitless will probably adopt a similar arrangement to that of Nakheel.

Last week Nakheel said it had reached an agreement with 75 per cent of its trade creditors and had pledged to settle Dh4bn of claims within two weeks. “I don’t think the Limitless plan is nailed down yet, but the presumption is that the same plan given to Nakheel would probably be given to Limitless, because it’s tried and tested now,” says Mr Shah.

Limitless has far less exposure to contractor debt than Nakheel, with companies mainly owed money for the construction of The Galleries and the infrastructure work at Downtown Jebel Ali.

In mid-April, the developer was also granted an extra 90 days to repay a $1.2bn Islamic loan that was due on March 30.“Limitless was only really involved in the construction of The Galleries in Dubai, everything else was about developing plots in the Jebel Ali area and overseas … they really aren’t as complicated as Nakheel,” Mr Shah says.

As a combined entity, Nakheel and Limitless have about 13 incomplete projects on their hands. This does not include the land bank that Limitless has overseas.

But whether the developers are under one roof or not, two major issues remain that will hamper the resumption of these projects: a shortage of bank funding and the oversupply of property in Dubai, says Majed Azzam, a property analyst at Al Futtaim HC Securities.

“Limitless is a very small company with few projects and Nakheel is not in a position to fund Limitless’s projects,” he says. “Most of the money Nakheel has is going to the trade creditors and banks. The move to combine them in order to be able to control their problems better is not a quick fix for the overall issues.”

As problems persist in overseas property markets, Limitless’s foreign land bank is also not a short-term cure for the companies.

“Limitless’s land overseas is not substantial when compared to Emaar,” says Mr Azzam. “It will take a long time to bring projects to fruition. They will still need to raise funding for any projects, with the development cycle taking three to five years.”

Despite Nakheel’s pledge to settle outstanding debts with its contractors, JP Grobbelaar, a director at the property company Colliers International, says both firms might struggle to find contractors to help complete all of their outstanding projects. “Contractors aren’t going to get involved unless they get paid,” he says. “This is the problem Nakheel faces and is what Limitless will face as well.”

agiuffrida@thenational.ae

DUBAI — Property developer Nakheel, a unit of Dubai World that has built palm-shaped islands, has been given the responsibilities of Dubai’s Limitless with an aim to achieve the best results for both the developers.

“The Higher Committee to oversee Dubai World and its units decided to entrust the board of Nakheel with handling responsibilities of Limitless in a step aimed at setting united strategies and programmes to deal with the real estate sector,” the Dubai Media Office said in a statement on Saturday.

The move would also help take advantage of technical and administrative personnel of Nakheel and Limitless so as to achieve the best result for developers, the construction sector and project investors, according to the statement.

Limitless, which once attempted to build a 75-kilometre inland waterway called the Arabian Canal, was excluded from Dubai World’s restructuring plan, unveiled in March. Limitless has already succeeded in rolling over a $1.2 billion Islamic loan due in March.

In helping transform the emirate as a regional hub, Dubai World and its property units, Nakheel and Limitless, used loans to finance real-estate projects such as the Palm Islands. The companies struggled to refinance their borrowings as the global credit crunch choked off lending.

Dubai World, one of the emirate’s three main state-owned business groups, reached an agreement on May 20 with its main creditors to restructure $23.5 billion of loans. Nakheel began making payments on June 30 to its biggest contractors as the Dubai World-owned property company seeks to alter terms on $10.5 billion of unpaid bills and loans amid falling property prices in the emirate.

The Dubai World-owned property company said it would pay Dh4 billion to its 1,000 trade creditors and added it would also be restarting several projects shortly.

The move follows initial payments made to trade creditors whom the company owed Dh500,000 or less. The payments began after the announcement of its restructuring plan in March this year.

In March, Nakheel had announced a comprehensive restructuring plan of its debt and liabilities. The plan enables Nakheel to offer creditors 100 per cent of agreed amounts owed.

Under this proposal, the Government of Dubai, through the Dubai Supreme Fiscal Committee, committed to provide approximately $8 billion directly to Nakheel to fund operations and settle liabilities.

abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com

Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek’s new general manager, Janet Fitzner, explains why she has already set a target of establishing the creekside property as Dubai’s preferred city hotel

Following your first two months in the city, what are your views on Dubai’s hotel industry?

I think the Dubai hotel market is very, very competitive of course — we have all the chains here, beautiful hotels, newest trends and fashion, and in terms of the F&B concepts, it’s amazing what we offer to the guest.

What I like very much is the service orientation here in Dubai, I think this is just amazing here.

This is especially so here in my hotel —I don’t have this level of friendliness when I go to another — but I think the service quality is of a good standard here in Dubai.

How would you like to see Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek positioned in this market?

I want to be the preferred city hotel here, that’s of course our ambition. We are long established, although this doesn’t mean anything, but I think we have proven that we still deliver an excellent service, the product is very special with lots of facilities we offer to our guests — we have 16 outlets so the guest has lots of choice. And I know that I am not the only hotel here in Deira but I am always fascinated by the location. I love the beach but when I come to Deira I am overwhelmed. You have the history behind you and in front of you, as well as views of Burj Khalifa, so I think our location is a very big advantage as well.

You have made an active effort to be a very visible GM in your hotel; why is that important to you?

I think that is one of the roles of a hotelier that I like. That’s why I like to be in operations — the possibility to meet the guests and talk to them — that is how you get new ideas. The guests give comments about what they like and don’t like — they give good recommendations and that’s how you improve either your service or your product Plus, they know Dubai well.

I am a communicative person but the problem is you have to keep your time for this. If you are new somewhere you can’t be lost behind your desk; with so many employees, I have to focus on them. What I enjoy here is that everybody understands you because everybody speaks English — it used to be that in Poland I would have to take somebody with me to translate because I didn’t speak fluent Polish so not everybody could understand me. But here, with 53 nationalities I am impressed that everybody speaks such good English. We have to look after the employees because without the employees I am nothing. I am only a little one among 650 people. This is the basis of what we have, that is what we have to see.

The hotel is at full occupancy [March 16]; why is this and how do you plan to continue it?

Well it is high season now in Dubai I think. I came in December for a handover then I started in January. I think Dubai has such high occupancy levels, which is amazing, so the demand is here and the city is attractive for people.

I was at ITB and it was interesting for me to see I think a very professional promotion — Kids go Free from DTCM and Emirates — for the summer to help all the hotels to fill up the rooms and get people in to the city. It’s very nice as a family approach for hotels who are family oriented or who can host that — there are lots of GCC people here for the summer for shopping and spending times with kids. We have a lot of flights out of Europe, so it’s of course helping us, so I think this is a very nice promotion.

What are your priorities for business going forward?

First of all, I am just getting an overview of the hotel, so I only have two and a half months, which is not that much of a solid background to get into the details. I think this is a time for me to sit with my team and consolidate things, just review what strategies we have, how to develop this year and then we are thinking ahead to next year for the business planning process and we need to adapt to the market.

We have just done a survey again for conference and banqueting for example. So if you see that occupancy in conferences and banqueting has gone down, then of course we have to see why this is. So one of my focuses now is meetings and events, and a lot of our business is catering so you also need to look to this area. Rooms is running very well, we have the comparison figures from the benches and we also carefully watch this.

I have reviewed the marketing plan, we just revised it according to the budgets. You have to also look at your forecasts into the next three months and so as each month ends we review everything again.

You have joined the ranks of a handful of female GMs operating in Dubai; how does that feel?

You have to make a decision at a certain stage if you are a female because in order to be a GM in the hotel industry you have to be flexible and moveable and sometimes this doesn’t fit into your life. But I think there are also visible changes so that maybe in the future this will change and moving will not be requested as much anymore. Maybe in the future we will see this because of course the younger generation has different demands to my generation, and the hotel industry also adapts to the new demands of the younger generations.

But whether a man or a woman, we have to see that the hotel is delivering our results and we achieve this with good employee satisfaction and each woman or man has to work on how to achieve this — I think in the end whether a GM is a man or woman doesn’t matter.

ABOUT JANET FITZNER

German-born Janet Fitzner took a fairly bumpy path into the hotel industry, despite it always being her dream to work in hospitality.

After persuading her disapproving parents that she should go to hotel school, Fitzner undertook a three-year apprenticeship, but following an experience in a private hotel in Germany, she decided after two years that it was not for her. Instead, she signed up to study economics specialised in the tourism and travel industry, writing her final diploma about marketing and hotels.

Her aim was to work for a tour operator in hotel purchasing, but with tour operators keener to give her a job in accounting because of her economics qualification, Fitzner found herself back in hotels, starting her career in the marketing department for InterContinental Cologne in 1988.

She joined Rezidor in 1992 as director of sales and marketing at the Radisson SAS Hotel in Düsseldorf and since then took on roles as revenue manager and executive assistant manager.

Fitzner’s first GM role was at Radisson SAS Hotel in Hannover in 2000.

In 2003, Fitzner moved to Poland as GM of the Radisson SAS Hotel in Szczecin and was then appointed GM at the Radisson Blu Centrum Hotel, Warsaw in 2006. In mid-2007, she was promoted to district director of Poland, overseeing six hotels — her most recent position.

Arabian Canal construction video. 2008

Source:  www.youtube.com

Jafza, the flagship free zone under Economic Zones World, announced the opening of a new representative office in the Tasjeel Vehicle Registration Centre located at the ENOC petrol station near Junction 13 inside the free zone. Reaching out to its customers’ need for faster and easier transactions, the new office will considerably reduce the time for new, renewal or cancellation of registration of their light commercial and passenger vehicles.

The service will also include vehicle transfer and export. Jafza’s new move has brought the processing time to less than an hour.

“Our new representative office at Tasjeel will be hugely beneficial to our customers,” Fatma Salem, EVP and Commercial Director Operations, Jafza, said about the move. “We understand that earlier the transfer of documents to and from the registration centre took more than 24hrs. Jafza was keen to improve this service and optimize operational efficiency and hence decided to move to the centre itself. Our commitment to customer satisfaction will remain uncompromising all the way,” she said.

The Traffic Affairs Counter in Jafza 14, Ground Floor, which used to handle the service earlier, will from now on handle the approval for commercial vehicles and issuance of ‘No Objection Certificates’ only.

The opening of the new office is part of Jafza’s policy to continuously upgrade its services in order to improve the overall qualitative experience of the customer. The free zone authority’s annual survey for 2009 showed that its services are on par with global indices, resulting in a remarkable increase in the level of customer satisfaction.

Economic Zones World, parent company of Jafza, Gazeley, TechnoPark and DAZ, has lent its support to ‘Our Earth – We Will’, a global environmental awareness campaign created to educate people, particularly children about the dangers of global warming and the actions that are needed to remedy the situation.

The initiative aims to collect green messages from celebrities and dignitaries from across the world on individual yards of eco-silk fabric, which will be sewn together to form a one kilometer long banner which will be showcased – end to end, this year in June at the South Pole. over 1250 people have signed the banner so far including His Excellency Mohammed Saeed Al Kindi, Minister of Environment and Water, UAE, Habiba Al Marashi, Chairperson, Emirates Environment Group and Member, UN Global Impact, as well as celebrities such as Elton John, Amitabh Bachchan, David Beckham, Donald Trump, and author of the Harry Potter Series, J.K. Rowling. The banner, expected to be the longest in the world, will then be folded back and taken around the world to raise awareness on global warming. The project will conclude with the display of the banner at the North Pole.

Economic Zones World CEO, Salma Hareb, who met with the creator of the project, Satish Sikha recently signed the fabric with this message: “Keeping our beautiful planet safe for the next generation is not an option, it’s a responsibility. Plant a tree. Flip a switch. Just think for a minute… and inspire little actions. Every one of them adds up. Taking on the challenge will bring out the best in us. We must. We can. We will.”

Commenting on Economic Zones World’s own CSR activities, Salma Hareb added: ‘The world needs more individuals and corporations who take an active interest in bringing about environmental sustainability in the world. EZW has made this a priority worldwide and adopts energy saving fittings and renewable sources of energy in many of its new sustainable warehouses and logistics developments in addition taking daily measures to reduce its carbon-footprint. We are very pleased to support this unique project and wish Satish the very best in his endeavour.”

Fashion entrepreneur-turned environmentalist, Satish Sikha rolled out the project in January 2008. He has been traveling across the globe encouraging people from different walks of life to assist him in spreading his message.

Satish Sikha commenting on the project  said: “The campaign consists of collecting words and autographs from our role models. They will write about their acts of green, and what they plan to do today for a happy green tomorrow. Having celebrities and role models on board this project sends a strong message to our children. Every yard of green organic silk fabric of the Our Earth – We Will represents a call to take action to create a better tomorrow. Essentially, the project is the World’s Longest Invitation to Action.”

Southeast Asia Pte. Limited (“DDW-SEA”), the Southeast Asian subsidiary of Drydocks World, has clinched newbuilding and conversion orders worth more than US$200 million since the start of this year.

The company says that while the newbuilding and conversion markets for the shipping and offshore sectors continue to be challenging, the first quarter of this year has shown some signs of recovery.

After a world-wide lull in conversion contracts in 2009, DDW-SEA won two major contracts in January.

The first is an upgrade from a crane barge to an accommodation barge for Leighton Offshore and the second is a container ship to livestock carrier conversion for a Saudi Arabian customer Hmood Al Ali Al Khalaf Trading and Transporting Est.

The list of newbuilding contracts includes repeat business from Coastline Maritime and Jack-Up Barge for the third ultra heavy lift construction support vessel and the sixth Jack-Up Barge respectively.

Other newbuilding orders clinched by the company include two dumb barges for PT. Kumala Barito Utara and a RoPax Catamaran (designed by Sea Transport Solutions of Australia) for an Australian client Islands Transport Holdings.

The livestock carrier conversion is a particularly high value contract worth more than S$60 million involving some 5,500 tonnes of steelwork and DDW-SEA believes it can secure similar work in future.

Work on the newbuildings and conversions will be undertaken at DDW-SEA’s Batam yards – Graha, Pertama and Nanindah and at its Singapore yard at Tuas.

Work on the newbuildings and conversions will start later this year and they are all due for delivery in 2011-2012.

DDW-SEA Chief Executive Officer Denis Welch said today: “The diversity of the business won reflects the efforts that we are putting in to ‘cast the net wide’ in searching for orders.

“The market has been through a very tough 12 months, but the last quarter (Jan to March 2010) has seen signs of an upturn in both newbuilding and conversion inquiries and I am pleased to say this is reflected in the orders we have received.”

He noted that the priority for DDW-SEA for the rest of 2010 was to deliver vessels currently on order at its yards on time and budget and to secure more orders similar to those won in the first quarter.

“I am sure that if we can continue to win this kind of quality business, then 2010 is going to be a stronger year for the company,” he added.

Given the anticipated improvement in market conditions and in line with its focus on continual improvements, DDW-SEA has recently employed an imaginative solution to upgrading and expanding its facilities at its Drydocks World – Singapore shipyard in Tuas.

This has involved moving a number of its operations into a 10,000 square metre factory at 36 Tuas Crescent located across the road from the main yard and linking the factory to the shipyard by a pedestrian bridge.

Mr Welch added: “We continue to have confidence in the bright future for both the industry and the region and our expansion at Tuas will greatly enhance efficiency at the yard, improve working conditions for our employees and will certainly add to the value we can give our customers.”

The Chairman of DP World and Dubai World has become the first person to step on land created at the UK’s newest port and logistics development, London Gateway.

Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem has inspected the first section of reclaimed land as part a visit to see DP World’s newest development get underway. The dredge and reclamation programme is a key element in the £1.5 billion project at London Gateway.

London Gateway is currently one of the largest inward investments into the UK and is the single largest jobs creation project, which will create some 36,000 jobs when complete. The project will be a major positive contribution to UK business.

The deepening of the River Thames for the project will allow the world’s biggest trading vessels to once again deliver goods to the heart of the UK consumer market. This will save UK companies significant transportation and distribution costs as well as improving carbon footprints. Over 65 million freight miles will be saved every year and 140,000 tons of CO2 emissions.

Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said: “Seeing new ground here at London Gateway is an excellent achievement for DP World and the London Gateway team. I’m very pleased to be able to stand on the land where the world’s largest cargo ships will once again visit London and bring goods straight into the heart of the UK markets.”

Simon Moore, CEO of London Gateway said: “We are progressing with the project very well and we are on course to deliver an exceptional piece of infrastructure for the UK.”

The Logistics Park will offer over nine million square feet for the distribution, manufacturing and high-tech sectors. The port, which will be one of the most automated and efficient in the world, will add an additional 3.5million TEU (twenty foot equivalent units) to the UK’s port capacity.

DP World has invested in a major hi-tech scheme, unprecedented in scale, to ensure the dredging is carried out safely and responsibly. The dredging work at London Gateway has triggered one of the most comprehensive marine and wildlife monitoring projects ever recorded.

Work carried out, in order to meet some of the toughest environmental laws in the world, includes assessments of the impact of the dredge to wildlife including internationally significant wading bird populations, fish and marine life, as well as to fishing communities, local habitats and resources of historic and archaeological significance.

Imdaad, the leading provider of comprehensive Facilities Management Services in the UAE, has adopted more environment-friendly methods while delivering diversified services to the high profile communities in Dubai.

The company is providing world class services to Dubai’s prestigious residential as well as business districts in areas such as Jumeirah and Business Bay, apart from a wide spectrum of other projects in Dubai.

As part of the strategy to give more emphasis on the Green factor in its expanding portfolio, Imdaad has deployed advanced waste management systems to ensure healthy environment at these communities.

Imdaad uses the highly advanced and environment friendly Envac containers for its waste management operations at its Jumeirah project. These are vacuum based waste collection systems that are safer and cleaner where the worker does not come into contact with the waste. The company also provides 1.1 CBM containers and 15 CBM skip for bulky waste collection enabling the disposal of large volume of waste and ensuring the development’s healthy environment.

Imdaad provides waste collection services as well as manages fresh water supply and waste water disposal at its Business Bay projects.

The company’s FM portfolio within the city’s new and upcoming villa communities expanded considerably over the past months, prompting it to upgrade its operation by including more number of vehicles and a bigger workforce to guarantee service excellence.

Jamal Lootah, Chief Executive Officer of  Imdaad, said: “We ensure world class health and safety standards in the diversified services provided to these leading projects in Dubai. We are aware that the result of our efforts will reflect upon the prestige of these developments as well as that of Dubai. Imdaad is proud to be associated with these landmarks and is committed to deliver clean, healthy and environment friendly solutions.”

The company is currently on a major expansion drive, aiming to become the most inclusive facilities management solutions provider in the UAE. Imdaad marked a remarkable year of achievements in 2009 despite the fallouts of a global economic slowdown. The FM leader reaffirmed commitment to sustainability through promoting a healthy, environment friendly lifestyle at the increasing number of its projects.

Imdaad also expanded its product range with the recent launch of Imdaad HomePro Maintenance Services, an exclusive service division offering clients comprehensive maintenance programme to help protect and preserve homes.

Imdaad’s client base includes major corporate and service establishments such as Nakheel, Jafza, DP World – UAE Region, Dubai Properties, Dubai Customs, Limitless, Tanmiyat and Tamweel and Barclays Bank. Among major projects on its portfolio are Palm Jumeirah, World Trade Centre, The Gardens, Atlantis, Jumeirah Golf Estate, International City, Jebel Ali Port and Free Zone and Wasl, the asset management group of Dubai real Estate Corporation (DREC), along with shopping malls like Ibn Batuta Mall, Aswaq Extra, Dragon Mall, and many more.