Just a quick breaking news story.
My sources tell me Blue City have just (this morning) managed to sell 120 individual units of the golf course apartments to .... Abu Dhabi Pension fund, and have received a crisp $20 million cheque as a deposit.
Nice one. Discount and price were not available, but it is a good source of confidence in the deal by a major external player (albeit one with shedloads of cash).
Blue City it may never become, well, unless the Government decide to decamp the Ministries to Al Sawadi in some future high oil price world... But Blue City resort will obviously be a go: i.e. some villas, apartments, hotels, marina and golf course. I hope they're sensible and don't cut the golf course down to 9 holes, as that would be penny wise-pound foolish as they say.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
18 comments:
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It is a good sale (if true) bearing in mind that the ads were seen on papers only last week..... Can somebody there confirm the sale? Is Blue City on track now? Or someone is just covering up the real status?
ReplyDeleteOh, and I meant villas not apartments.
ReplyDeleteSee - not all Muscat Confidential is negative news!
Disclaimer: UD does not work for Blue City or Times of Oman.
Abu Dhabi-based entities will end up owning most of the world (as in the planet earth, not just the Dubai land-reclamation project).
ReplyDeleteAbu Dhabi is my second favorite place in the world (first being Muscat) to dig in and watch the downfall of the civilized world as we know it. It was first before overnight parking on the curb become the norm and they dug up the Tourist Club area for what seems to be Big Dig # 2.
I think it was 112 villas, and apparently there's only 202 golf villas in total, and I've heard reports that as many as 80 villa's were sold to other purchasers, leaving something like 10 villas available. Not bad considering the sale of these villa's were only launched last week.
ReplyDeleteWhich I guess means that construction will commence on the golf villas soon, if it hasn't already begun.
This is good news!
On track they are!! I can almost smell the critics wet their pants with anger and envy now! Took some time to clean up other people's garbage but good to see you're making progress now. Kudos to your team!
ReplyDeleteAbu Dhabi? All so utterly predictable...
ReplyDeleteI hope the golf course is not a grass one. What a stupid wasteful idea that would be.
ReplyDelete-Omani in US
This is good news! Blue City was supposed to take off for the sake of all the hype it created. If the Abu Dhabi pension fund story is true, its good news for the Bahrain partner as well. They would enjoy 70% profit because they are the 70% owners!!!!
ReplyDeleteGuess this means the BCC1 management might now be willing to share the sales figures with the outside world? Maybe with a comparison with original forecasted figures and dates?
ReplyDeleteFor sure these guys from Abu Dhabi got the deal of a lifetime. They know that if they buy bulk, there is a fair chance BCC1 will actually build these villas...and they will have them dirt-cheap, waiting for the moment the market starts to recover. Sorry shareholders, your margin goes to Abu Dhabi!
Great news indeed. Maybe Al Madina Al Zarqa now can pay the unpaid bills from my friends at contractor AECO. Maybe even the unpaid bills from Bovis. And of all the others that haven't received their payments over the last few months....
ReplyDeleteThe Greek
Pay the bills? Why? Don't you know its a privilege to work on this project! You want paying! Never!! Be off with you!!!
ReplyDeleteJust curious...why should Oman seek Bahrain first and now UAE, read Abu Dhabi; to develop this project. Oman Government has been magnanimous and has provided at no cost the entire GPI to the boundary (GPI = General Public Infrastructure) and the best yet, Government of Oman has not even collected a single baiza for the land!!! hmmmm, Abu Dhabi, US$ 80 Billion in cash, interesting...comon cyclone, you could do this alone, even if it means developing a miniature area off the 32 sq. kms...
ReplyDeleteUD I stand corrected, this is positive news about blue city. newspapers today show golf and country club villas for RO 212,000. what a good bargain compared to other offerings out there. no wonder they are selling!
ReplyDelete212,000 bargain? Not for real Oman people! Too much.
ReplyDeleteEli, I'd recommend you talk to Abu Dhabi Pension Fund. They got them much cheaper...
ReplyDeleteYou are right, Ding Dong, I completely forgot. What was I thinking!?
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, others have received huge payments/presents for very, very little work.
So why not throw some money at the people that have actually done all the work?
Or maybe some golf-villa's as compensation? They are giving them away almost for free anyway.
The Greek
Whatever your views on Blue City might be, fact is that this is remarkable news. Not just because it is the first positive sound we have heard about this troubled project in many months (years?), but also because it comes in this time of great economic turmoil and uncertainty.
ReplyDeleteGiven the circumstances, this event should probably best be looked at as a 'one-off'. It would obviously not be wise for potential investors to regard this news as a sign that the project is now saved and going ahead or, even worse, as a sign that the crisis might be over.
But still, it is well possible that in a few more years this area will indeed become a luxury beach- and golf resort (but not a city or village!). In that case, those who can actually spare some money at this moment to take the risk and purchase one of these luxury properties might in the end indeed end up with a real nice profit.
'On track they (he means: we) are!!' the Anonymous BCC1-management says. Which track exactly would that be!? Talking about garbage...
ReplyDelete