Dubai revives mega-property project

Dubai is to restart work on 2 square miles of urban development within its exisiting city that will include the biggest cluster of art galleries in the Middle East and North Africa and the world's largest mall. Mohammed Bin Rashid City, named for the emirate’s ruler, will also have 100 hotels, residential areas and parkland that is said will be 30% bigger than London's Hyde Park. Real-estate developments halted in the wake of the global financial crisis in 2008 are being restarted to stimulate the economy. "We do not anticipate the future. We build it,” Dubai's ruller Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, said announcing the mega-project. Such ambition would have seemed overreaching three years ago, when a crash of Dubai’s inflated real-estate market triggered a corporate debt crisis. The new development will be built by Emaar Properties, the United Arab Emirates’ largest developer, and the Sheikh's investment holding company, Dubai Holding.