Dubai: Shaikh Zayed Road’s status as the destination for skyscraper records has just been reinforced. The Gevora Hotel — developed by the Al Attar Group — will from Monday lay claim to be the “world’s tallest hotel”, at 356 metres and 53 centimetres high. That makes it a metre taller than the previous holder of the title, the JW Marriott Marquis, just down the road from it.
The new property’s claims to the title have been confirmed by Guinness Book of World Records.
The ground plus 75-storey property is the Al Attar’s Group’s first move into hospitality, and will be extended by the addition of another one — a G+60 storey — in the Tecom area. A third one is in the planning stages, according to a senior official.
The Gevora will have 528 rooms and have rack rates from Dh600 a night to Dh2,000 for a two-bedroom unit. It cost upwards of Dh500 million to build and takes up a 30 square metre plot.
“The plot size is more or less the standard for towers on SZ Road,” said Jairaj Gorsia, General Manager for the property. “The Al Attar Group wanted to use this particular plot for a hospitality venture after having already built mixed-used towers elsewhere on SZ Road.
“The 528 rooms adds to the existing 22 hotels already on this stretch, each with an average of 250-300 rooms.”
Among these is the Burj Khalifa, standing tall at 830 metres right to the end of its tip. But apart from its hotel, it features private residences and offices.
The Gevora and the JW Marriott Marquis are exclusively given over to hotels, and as such viewed as a distinct category when it comes to measuring their claims on height. The JW Marriott Marquis Dubai Hotel — a twin-tower structure with 1,608 rooms — cost Dh1.8 billion to build. Tower 1 opened in 2012 and the second in the following year.
Now, Dubai will have four properties represented in the list of world’s tallest hotel towers, while China and Hong Kong host most of the others. Another Shaikh Zayed Road high-rise, the Rose Rayhann by Rotana Dubai, is now the fourth tallest.
Those who drive up and down Shaikh Zayed Road will not have missed seeing the Gevora, which bears an uncanny resemblance to London’s Big Ben structure. (But without the clock, of course.) The project took four years to complete.
“Given the proximity to the financial district, we will principally aim for the business traveller,” said Gorsia. “But we can always cast a wider net, especially among the Gulf travellers. Having done the opening, we will hit full speed as soon as we fine-tune the processes in the next few days.”
