Projects
Dubai's 350-metre tower moves to podium construction
By Staff Writer | 7 August 2026
Dar Global has appointed Gulf Asia Contracting to build the podium of its 80-storey Sheikh Zayed Road tower, as enabling works head for completion next month.
The London-listed developer confirmed the award on 6 August 2026. The scope covers construction of the podium structure and follows the enabling works package, which is scheduled to finish in September 2026.
The mixed-use development sits on Sheikh Zayed Road at the gateway to Downtown Dubai. It was launched in April 2025 and will rise approximately 350 metres across 80 floors, combining hotel accommodation, branded residences and a private members' club in one building.
The award moves the scheme out of enabling works and into permanent structure, the point at which a tower's programme becomes difficult to recover if it slips.
What the podium package carries
Podium construction on a tower of this height carries more risk than its share of the floor count suggests. It houses the transfer structures, the plant and the vertical circulation that everything above depends on, and it is built while the site is at its most congested.
The sequencing also matters commercially. Handing the podium to a contractor while enabling works are still completing compresses the interface between two trades on the same footprint, which is where claims for disruption and access usually begin on Gulf high-rise projects.
This marks another important milestone as the project continues to progress according to plan and reflects our commitment to partnering with leading contractors to deliver exceptional quality throughout every stage of development.
Ziad El Chaar, Chief Executive Officer of Dar Global
The chief executive said the appointment followed the successful completion of the enabling works, and framed the choice of contractor as part of a wider approach of working with established regional builders through each stage.
The finished building
The tower is planned to include the city's highest outdoor swimming pool and two signature penthouses, with views across Downtown Dubai and the Arabian Gulf. The developer describes the scheme as a single destination combining hospitality, residences and members' facilities rather than separate uses stacked together.
That combination is demanding to build. Hotel, residential and club floors carry different servicing, acoustic separation and fire strategy requirements, and each imposes its own constraints on the shared cores and risers running through the podium now being priced and programmed.
For the wider Dubai market, the award is another data point in a run of packages moving from planning into construction on prime road frontage. Contractors with tower experience and available resource are being drawn into a tight window, since several schemes along the same corridor are reaching structure at once.
The next visible marker will be the tower crane climbing above the hoarding, which is when the delivery programme stops being a drawing and starts being a race.