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Dubai Festival City, developed by Al Futtaim Group, will host the Middle East's largest complex of hotels and recreational facilities worth Dh3 billion, its officials said. "We are shifting our focus from the importance of location to the key element of connectivity in terms of the future of the hospitality sector," Marwan Shehadeh, director of finance for Dubai Festival City, said at the Arabian Travel Market. The project, called the city within a city, will have a Dh250 million Crowne Plaza, a Dh750 million Four Seasons and a Dh600 million InterContinental hotel, its officials said. It will also have a golf course, country club, convention centre and timeshare resorts, offering 2,500 rooms, which may increase to 4,000. Hotels in the Festival City will open around the middle of 2007, they said.
"We are also in talks with three other hospitality operators, and they are from the United States and Europe," said David Glanville-Williams, Managing Director of Festival City. The major components of the Festival City's first phase, including retail and residential facilities, for Dh10 billion is expected to be completed by September 2006. Al Futtaim Group will finance the 1,600-acre project with funds from outside. "We have signed up till now two loans with a syndication of local and international banks and we are planning to sign four more deals in the coming weeks," Shehadeh said.
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