{"id":230380,"date":"2025-10-21T22:27:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T22:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/230380\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T22:27:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T22:27:20","slug":"burj-khalifa-builder-mohamed-alabbars-second-act-beyond-dubai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/230380\/","title":{"rendered":"Burj Khalifa builder Mohamed Alabbar\u2019s second act: beyond Dubai"},"content":{"rendered":"

Touring the upscale Egyptian beach resort that has taken him more than a decade to build, the Gulf\u2019s most prolific billionaire businessman frequently has to pause for curious guests seeking selfies.<\/p>\n

Mohamed Alabbar\u2019s rising profile outside his native United Arab Emirates points to a new phase for the 68-year-old behind the world\u2019s biggest shopping centre and its tallest skyscraper, Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Credited with a key role in building modern Dubai, the hard-charging founder of state-backed developer Emaar has embarked on a renewed international expansion. Although his attempted overseas forays in the early 2000s hit snags, Alabbar\u2019s empire of influence now stretches from the vast Marassi development on Egypt\u2019s Mediterranean coast to Serbia and even Madagascar, mirroring the UAE\u2019s push beyond its borders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a small country,\u201d Alabbar<\/a> told the Financial Times. But by investing in countries often overlooked by western investors, he added, \u201ccan we have a one-billion population economy?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

For his second act, the real estate mogul is leading another development company: Eagle Hills, a private investment fund backed by wealthy Abu Dhabi families.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, he and Saudi Arabia\u2019s sovereign wealth fund own a majority stake in the region\u2019s biggest fast food group, Americana, and, in 2016, Alabbar launched ecommerce company Noon to compete with Amazon in the Middle East. Alabbar chairs UAE digital lender Zand Bank and oversees Emaar<\/a> \u2014 which is listed and also operates malls and hotels \u2014 as the group\u2019s managing director.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although seen as a maverick, few non-royals in the region enjoy Alabbar\u2019s proximity to power. A lieutenant to Dubai\u2019s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, he has also forged ties with Abu Dhabi\u2019s royal family and regularly accompanies UAE ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan on overseas visits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Armani chief executive Giuseppe Marsocci, with whom Alabbar has worked on branded residences and hotels, described him as \u201cculturally open-minded\u201d with \u201cvery detailed attention\u201d to projects. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t accept the first idea,\u201d he added. \u201cHe wants to go deeper\u201d.<\/p>\n

Alabbar and Dubai have been buoyed by a property boom fuelled by unprecedented population growth as foreigners flock to the safe, low-tax UAE.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But he had modest beginnings: the son of a twice-shipwrecked dhow captain and one of 13 children, Alabbar grew up in a two-room state-provided home that he also shared with two cows. He despises the billionaire label, considering it \u201cimpolite\u201d for reserved Emirati culture. \u201cI came from social housing,\u201d he said. \u201cI belong there.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating in 1981 from Seattle University on a UAE government scholarship, Alabbar worked at the central bank before being made director of a Dubai investment company in Singapore, whose mall holdings exposed him to the Asian financial hub\u2019s cut-throat retail market. He returned to Dubai in the early 1990s to found a new government department dedicated to economic development, and oversaw several other state-owned companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As development surged after Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum became Dubai\u2019s crown prince and de facto ruler in 1995, Alabbar started raising money for a real estate company. With the venture blessed by Sheikh Mohammed in 1997, Emaar was given prime land, which was ultimately swapped for a stake in the company that the Dubai government still holds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AThe exclusive 7km beachfront of Egypt\u2019s Marassi resort has been derided by some as a \u2018copy and paste\u2019 of Dubai \u00a9 Sarah ElMasry\/FT<\/p>\n

Emaar and Alabbar were roiled by Dubai\u2019s first spectacular property crash, triggered by the global financial crisis, while he lost millions in US property and mining ventures in Africa. And Alabbar has his detractors: not everyone in the Dubai market approves of his fast-talking style and pushy approach.<\/p>\n

His management style is that of a \u201cmegalomaniac\u201d, according to one executive who has worked with Alabbar.<\/p>\n

But the businessman has maintained a reputation for rapid completion, which is important currency in an oil-rich region with huge ambitions. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis track record of project delivery was much stronger than his rivals\u2019,\u201d said Jim Krane, author of Dubai: The Story of the World\u2019s Fastest City, and he \u201cretained credibility after the crash\u201d.<\/p>\n

Alabbar said that during \u201c20 years of experience, I made a few mistakes. Maybe I\u2019m a better manager now\u201d.<\/p>\n

He has now set his sights beyond the UAE. Emaar has operations in countries including Egypt and India, while Eagle Hills is working on multibillion-dollar waterfront developments in Belgrade and Riga, as well as on a beachfront and marina on Albania\u2019s Adriatic coast. It also owns hotels in Croatia, Munich and Muscat, and in September announced a planned $5.5bn investment in Georgia for two developments, including in the capital Tbilisi.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The developer\u2019s appetite for new projects is ferocious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SunlitMohamed Alabbar argues that developments such as Marassi, although designed for the rich, help to create employment and boost tax revenues \u00a9 Sarah ElMasry\/FT<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to build my own Bali,\u201d Alabbar enthused about a resort he is designing in Madagascar. In Montenegro, he plans \u201csomething really large\u201d, while he said land had been earmarked for Eagle Hills in the North Macedonian capital of Skopje, and that he was also exploring a hill town in the country for a summer resort.<\/p>\n

But Alabbar\u2019s global expansion has also drawn criticism. The exclusive 7km beachfront of Emaar\u2019s Marassi, derided by some as a \u201ccopy and paste\u201d of Dubai, is part of what some Egyptians have nicknamed \u201cthe evil coast\u201d for pricing out most of the public. Similar accusations of building an elitist enclave have followed the Serbian development.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alabbar stressed that he wanted to undertake projects that were welcomed by local communities. While acknowledging that developments such as Marassi and Belgrade\u2019s waterfront were designed for the rich, he argued that they created employment, boosted tax revenues and gave wealthy people an option to spend money at home rather than abroad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have luxury living in Singapore, Beijing, Beverly Hills, Mayfair,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy can\u2019t we, in Egypt, have a Mayfair? Give us a piece of the rich people here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, activists in Serbia have criticised the award of the huge Belgrade waterfront project to Eagle Hills, alleging that the process was not transparent. Albania\u2019s Durr\u00ebs port project, which also had no public tender and was initially linked to Emaar, has come under fire from opposition lawmakers.<\/a> Other critics argue that Emaar and Eagle Hills act as tools of UAE soft power, spreading the country\u2019s influence abroad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"CrowdedDubai Mall, the world\u2019s biggest shopping centre, is owned by Emaar \u00a9 Christopher Pike\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n

But Alabbar insisted independent auditors had drawn up the Serbian and Albanian contracts, while arguing that Albania had been unable to find other investors willing to take on the port development. And he contended that singling out the UAE for leveraging commercial clout abroad was unfair, citing Donald Trump\u2019s demand<\/a> that a US company take control of the Panama Canal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Emirati businesses \u201care not directed by the government to go buy a port from the Chinese\u201d, Alabbar insisted. \u201cWe never behave like that\u201d.<\/p>\n

While he linked Emaar and Eagle Hills\u2019 willingness to do business in often underinvested markets to the UAE\u2019s own experience of rapid growth, he said they existed to make a profit. <\/p>\n

\u201cForty years ago\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009we wanted somebody to come and do development in our country,\u201d he said, and Emiratis now felt \u201cemotional\u201d to be able to say \u201cwe will help you\u201d to the people of Serbia. \u201cBut please, we have to make some money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since unifying in 1971 after discovering oil in the late 1950s, the UAE has ascended from relative impoverishment at breakneck speed. The country \u201cis only 50 years old\u201d, said Alabbar. \u201cWe\u2019re young, we have to work day and night to make it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Longtime business associate Ramesh Prabhakar, vice-chair and managing partner of Dubai-based luxury group Rivoli, said Alabbar was \u201cimpatient\u201d. But \u201cin an emerging market\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009there\u2019s no tomorrow. You\u2019ve got to get it done today\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ResortResort villas and palm trees line a winding waterway at Marassi \u00a9 Sarah ElMasry\/FT<\/p>\n

Given his reputation as a demanding boss, some candidates invited to interview for roles at Emaar did not even turn up, Alabbar said. He described his management style as loyal and generous but conceded he could be harsh. When executives made mistakes, he said, \u201cI don\u2019t give two chances\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He \u201cwill not tolerate fools\u201d, said Prabhakar. \u201cThere is only one captain of the ship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alabbar\u2019s vaulting expansionism contrasts with a micro-managerial obsession with cost-cutting. He recently slashed Emaar\u2019s office tea selection from three types to one, and to improve productivity, he banned meetings at the group during September \u2014 although he said staff could request permission for meetings from the group\u2019s chief executive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen things are going well, I squeeze efficiency ratios to the max\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009in case something happens, we\u2019re fit\u201d, he said, adding: \u201cI\u2019m a paranoid guy.\u201d Alabbar credited this impulse to his experience in Singapore and his work with executives from the cost-conscious Indian market.<\/p>\n

Although Alabbar accepts he is profit-driven, Prabhakar said the real estate tycoon had in recent years developed \u201ca more human element\u201d and now considered business from the standpoint of \u201ca larger good\u201d. In his foreign ventures, Prabhakar said, Alabbar wanted to \u201clift communities and bring in some islands of excellence\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Standing on top of one of Marassi\u2019s many luxury hotels, offering a view of the turquoise Mediterranean and a villa where Egypt\u2019s president sometimes stays, Alabbar scanned the sprawling property for potential improvements. He said he had changed the flowers across the entire resort a few weeks earlier, judging the previous blooms insufficiently colourful. He had arrived by private jet from Angola, where an Emirati delegation had inked business deals.<\/p>\n

But despite his apparent restlessness, Alabbar said he was enjoying a career high: \u201cI open my iPad and it\u2019s about Madagascar\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009it\u2019s about Noon, autonomous vehicles. And then it\u2019s about Montenegro. What a lucky man I am.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Touring the upscale Egyptian beach resort that has taken him more than a decade to build, the Gulf\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-230380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}