DIFC starts work on $205m building in Gate Village

Dubai International Financial Centre has began construction on a new building at the Gate Village, the emirate’s financial freezone said in a statement.

Gate Village Building 11 will take shape on plot GV02 adjacent to Gate Village GV01 and will be built with an investment of Dhs 205m. The building is scheduled for completion by the second quarter of 2017.

Spread across a total built-up area of 200,000 sq ft, the premises will offer 160,000 sq ft (82 per cent) of office space and nearly 40,000 sq ft (18 per cent) for retail and F&B outlets.

The new building will also feature six floors of office space and a parking space for upto 362 vehicles.

“With all our buildings at the DIFC Gate District fully occupied at present, the new development will ensure that we continue to meet the demand for best-in-class office spaces in the financial district in the next exciting phase of growth,” said DIFC governor Essa Kazim.

With Dubai’s economy growing at a robust rate, DIFC is cashing on it with major expansion plans.

The financial freezone, whose member base expanded 18 per cent last year, announced a new strategy that will triple its operations over the next 10 years. The expansion will also lead to a growth in office space and workforce employed at DIFC, Kazim added.

By 2024, DIFC is predicting to see about 1,000 firms, up from the current 365. In line with that, occupied space is expected to grow to 5.5m sq ft from 2.5m sq ft available today.

Meanwhile the workforce in DIFC-registered companies is expected to triple from 17,860 to 50,000 over the next decade.

Assets under management of fund managers and financial institutions are also expected to rise to an estimated $250bn by 2024, up from a total of $10.4bn in 2014.

Within this 10-year period, DIFC also anticipates financial firms to strengthen their balance sheet by an estimated value of $400bn, compared to $65bn in 2014.

The expansion will help increase the share of the financial sector to Dubai’s GDP. Kazim said that by 2024, the financial sector’s contribution will grow to 18 per cent from 14 per cent in 2014.