Dubai F1-dedicated theme park back on track

Dubai’s proposed theme park dedicated to the F1 car racing is back on track after initial plans were put on hold in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

Dubai-based Union Properties has finalized plans to build a $163.35mn mixed-use project in Motor City, which includes the theme park, the company’s chairman, Khalid Bin Kalban, was quoted as saying in local news media reports.

Initial plans by Union Properties for a $544.49mn F1-X Dubai were put on hold due to the financial crisis. “The land was allotted to a theme park development, but a feasibility study said the cost would overrun to as much as $544.49mn. We have now redesigned the land usage plan, with 50% of the land allotted to a theme park and the remaining 50% to a mixed-use development,” Kalban said.

“The revised masterplan has been approved by Dubai Municipality, but is awaiting clearance from Dubailand, the master developer who was insisting on the theme park as it used to be. But that is not possible,” Kalban said.

Though the original Motor City master plan included seven hotels, Kalban said the company has stripped back its ambitious hospitality development plans to developing only three hotels. “We are executing the Motor City master plan, but with slight changes because market dynamics have changed. It is the most prosperous community in Dubailand. We want to capitalise on it,” he said.

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