Shapoorji Pallonji Dubai

Most developers in this market begin by selling. Shapoorji Pallonji began by building, and it built for other people first.

Between 2010 and 2021 the group delivered the Meydan Nad Al Sheba interchange, two residential towers, a hospital, two townhouse communities, a university campus, a corporate headquarters, a business park, eight hotels and an Expo 2020 pavilion in Dubai. Only after that record did it register as a developer and put its own name on a tower.

Engineering, civil and structural work, facades, MEP, interior fit out, project management and facility management all sit inside the group. On Imperial Avenue the same company that designed and built the tower is the company that sold the homes.

Park Towers won the International Property Award and was named Best Mixed Use Development in the World. The group also holds the Dubai Quality Appreciation Award for its Dubai operations and was named Best Construction Company of the Year at the Arabian Business Real Estate Awards in Dubai in 2020.

It also received a BIM Excellence Award in 2018. On the development side, SPIPD lists an Arabian Property Awards win for 2020 and 2021, along with a Luxury Lifestyle Award in 2021.

Imperial Avenue rises 45 storeys in Downtown Dubai, in the Burj Khalifa district, with views over the Burj Khalifa and Dubai Canal. It contains 424 homes across a mix that is wider than the Downtown norm.

Podium villas with private pools inside a Downtown tower are rare, as are four-bedroom apartments of 3,000 sq ft in this postcode.

Amenities are spread across three levels rather than concentrated on one floor. The 26th-floor Sky Lounge features the gym, steam room, squash court, audio-visual room, games room and multipurpose hall. The ninth-floor Euphoria Retreat has sculptural gardens and the family infinity pool, while the sixth-floor Serene Crest features a lily pond.

Below these amenities is a 10,000 sq ft entrance lobby and 21,000 sq ft of ground-level retail, served by 13 high-speed lifts.

The neighbourhood puts DIFC and Business Bay next door, Dubai Design District close by, Mediclinic and Medicare hospitals within reach, and GEMS Wellington Primary School and Cambridge International School nearby.

Design partners on the project are Archgroup as architect, Cracknell on landscape and Koltay Facades on the envelope.

Space Over Unit Count

Four bedroom homes at 3,000 sq ft, penthouses up to 5,900 sq ft, and podium villas with private pools. The floor plate could have carried far more than 424 units.

Sustainability in the Fabric

Imperial Avenue was delivered with solar panels for hot water, grey water treatment, in-unit water purifiers and piped gas. The project was modelled using 6D BIM technology, which ties the digital model to lifecycle and facility management data rather than stopping at construction.

Trust and Transparency

Those are the two words the group uses for its own way of working. Cyrus Engineer, who leads SP International Property Developers, described Imperial Avenue on completion as Indian engineering heritage combined with Dubai standards, and said the handover was of a sustainable and technology-enabled lifestyle rather than of apartments alone.

The Product Is Finished

Imperial Avenue holds a RERA Building Completion Certificate. Buyers see the actual home before they commit, which is not the case for most stock being sold in the city.

Downtown Holds Its Position

Land supply is fixed, the Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall are next door, and DIFC and Business Bay are minutes away. Nothing about that depends on a future masterplan finishing on schedule.

Delivery Risk Is Low for a First Development

The same group had already completed more than twenty buildings in Dubai over fifteen years before it built its own. Completion funding came through Hayfin Capital of London and Commercial Bank International of the UAE, at a total investment of AED 1.4 billion.

The Buyer Base Is Broad

The developer reports buyers from more than 60 nationalities at Imperial Avenue, which matters for resale and for rental demand. SPIPD’s own case for Downtown rested on appreciation it has seen in the luxury segment there, in the range of 8 to 12 percent, which is the developer’s reading of the market rather than a promise attached to any unit.

Large Homes Are the Scarce Commodity

Downtown has plenty of one and two bedroom stock. Family-sized floor plans with private pools are thin on the ground.