United Arab Emirates’ hotel and residential developer and owner Aldar Properties announced a major overhaul of its Eastern Mangroves’ hotel and lodgings assets in its home base of Abu Dhabi, the country’s capital, and in other emirates.
Work is to begin this year.
Gulf News reported the firm plans to spend 1.5 billion United Arab Emirates dirhams ($408 million) on renovating, repositioning and rebranding most of its 10 assets in the Arab nation.
Its independent, temporarily closed, 222-room Eastern Mangroves Hotel & Spa, which opened in 2012, is to become a Waldorf Astoria property. Six of the company's seven hotels in Yas Plaza — it is not clear which one is not part of the change — will sign with IHG Hotels & Resorts to become the “largest Vignette Collection resort in the world,” according to Aldar Properties.
Vignette Collection is IHG’s highest-end soft brand.
The Yas Island hotels currently are branded across the W Hotels, Crowne Plaza, Radisson Blu, Rotana, Park Inn by Radisson, Centro and Staybridge Suites brands.
Collectively, those seven hotels have 2,259 rooms.
Aldar also has a second Rotana hotel in downtown Abu Dhabi.
Outside of the city but still in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, its Tilal Liwa Hotel 20 miles north of the Saudi Arabian border will also join Vignette and be positioned as a “luxury desert escape,” according to the newspaper. Its Nurai Island hotel will be repositioned as “Abu Dhabi’s ultra-luxury island destination.”
In Ras Al Khaimah, a separate emirate to the east of both Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the Rixos Bab Al Bahr and DoubleTree by Hilton Resort & Spa Marjan Island, Accor and Hilton brands, respectively, will also be renovated.
Talal Al Dhiyebi, Aldar’s group CEO, said in a news release that the firm sees “a tremendous opportunity to enhance and reposition our hotel portfolio to meet expected demand in the luxury segment, while maximizing the revenue potential of each asset.”
The Aldar investments will elevate the hotels it owns into luxury resort-style properties. This would help meet the demand for premium hospitality experiences in Abu Dhabi amid rapid expansion of the leisure and tourism sector, he added.
In other news in the UAE, on Sept. 23, its government approved a AED10 billion ($2.7 billion) expansion of the Dubai Exhibition Center in Dubai’s Expo City district.
Another project within the UAE’s Dubai 2040 plan, when work is finished, the center will be the largest purpose-built indoor events and exhibitions venue in the Middle East, it is claimed.
The final phase of this development, due in 2031, will include a 300-room hotel.