Middle East Construction

Three Grade A offices in Muscat reach a quarter built, with handover in 2028

By Staff Writer  |  3 September 2026

Business Park Phase Three at Madinat Al Irfan stands at 23 per cent complete and is set for handover in the first quarter of 2028, on a development of 7 million square metres that has already delivered two corporate headquarters.

The third phase of the business park at Madinat Al Irfan in Muscat is 23 per cent complete and is scheduled for handover in the first quarter of 2028. It comprises three Grade A office buildings that finish the business park cluster, arranged around a landscaped central courtyard called the Oasis, with shaded walkways, seating, communal areas and food and beverage units at ground level.

The wider development runs to 7 million square metres. What has already been handed over on it gives the phase its context: the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre, two hotels beside it, and two Grade A headquarters buildings, one of 44,125 square metres of built-up area and one of 98,505 square metres.

What the specification commits the team to

Phase Three is targeting LEED Gold certification and WELL principles are being applied to the workplaces. At development level the measures listed are district cooling, energy efficient facades, daylighting, water efficient fittings and the use of non-potable water for landscape irrigation. The stated figures are energy savings of around 25 per cent, a reduction of 50 per cent in indoor water consumption, and around 30 per cent of civil materials recycled.

A stated percentage saving is a design intention until a completed building is measured against it. The certification is the mechanism that tests the intention, and the date it is awarded, rather than the date it is targeted, is the one to record.

Thirty six per cent of Madinat Al Irfan is given over to open green space. Existing wadi channels have been kept and worked into the public realm rather than culverted away, and about 15 kilometres of cycling trails run through it. For anyone administering the works, a preserved wadi channel is a hydraulic constraint on every adjacent plot, not a landscaping choice, and it fixes levels and drainage routes that later phases have to accept.

A million hours without a lost time injury

Business Park Phase Three has passed one million working hours without a lost time injury. The measures credited are a project wide safety culture, toolbox talks, peer to peer engagement and digital health and safety systems, including a card based reporting scheme and centralised reporting platforms.

That figure measures recorded lost time injuries against recorded hours, and both halves depend on the reporting rules that produced them. Ask what a contractor counts before comparing one project's record with another's, because the definitions move between employers and between jurisdictions.

We will continue to maintain the right balance between built-up areas, green spaces, and walkable public realms, creating a people-centric city designed for long-term value and resilience; one that delivers lasting relevance and longevity for future generations

Eng. Mohammed Abdullah Al Salmi, General Manager of Madinat Al Irfan

What comes after the offices

The components named as still to come are townhouses and villas, further food and beverage destinations, the International Financial Centre of Oman, Wadi Park, a headquarters building for the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the first school in the convention district. Wadi Park is described as carrying around 600 trees with a natural play park, a skate park, a basketball court, a picnic area and a fitness zone.

No start date, contract value or contractor has been published for any of those. Nor has a contract value, a contractor or a combined floor area been published for the three office buildings now on site, and LEED Gold is stated as a target rather than an award. None of that is assumed here.

The number to watch is not the 23 per cent. It is whether the first quarter of 2028 survives the next two reporting rounds, because a handover date restated without change on a job at a quarter built is worth more than a completion percentage on its own.