-
Ali and Amira Sajwani want to revive the failed World Islands project in Dubai.
-
They plan to build 24 townhouses, a beach club and two helipads.
-
The siblings’ father, Hussain Sajwani, is a billionaire who is close to Donald Trump.
The children of a billionaire Dubai property developer have hatched a plan to revitalize the emirate’s abandoned ‘World Islands’.
Ali and Amira Sajwani have teamed up to launch Amali Island, a real estate project that aims to revive the troubled development by building 24 mansions, a beach club and twin helipads.
Nineteen of the 24 beachfront villas have already been sold, with the rest selling for more than $13.6 million, Ali Sajwani previously told Bloomberg.
One of the villas yet to be sold has seven bedrooms spread over 22,500 square meters on a plot of 56,000 square meters.
The siblings’ father, Hussain Sajwani, is one of the richest people in the United Arab Emirates with a fortune worth more than $5 billion, according to Forbes.
His children want to revive Dubai’s ‘The World’ archipelago, some 300 artificial islands in the shape of a world map.
State-backed developer Nakheel Properties began construction on the project in 2003, but the 2008 financial crisis put a stop to it. Many of the islands were subsequently abandoned.
The Amali project will be formed by merging the islands that should represent Uruguay and São Paulo, according to Bloomberg.
The elder Sajwani is chairman of luxury real estate developer Damac Properties, which he founded in 2002, and is known in the West for his close business ties with Donald Trump.
Damac and Trump teamed up in 2013 to build a Trump-designed, Tiger Woods-designed golf course.
Sajwani has also been vocal in his support for the ex-president’s trade war with China, noting in a 2018 interview that he felt “sympathetic” to Washington in its battle with Beijing.
“We signed an agreement with the Trump Organization. We are very happy with them – their service and their quality,” he told Bloomberg. “Without the organization we would never have been able to build our golf courses.”
The World was less successful than the Palm Jumeirah artificial islands project, which now features thousands of houses and other buildings.
Read the original article on Business Insider
