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Dubai: Florists, beauty salons, supermarkets and convenience stores are altering the look of Jumeirah Beach Road and are occupying spaces that were once residential homes. Houses have been either torn down or renovated to be turned into offices, shops, or restaurants. New villas have also been built for more up-market restaurants, florists, fabric shops and photography studios. In Jumeirah 1, a strip of old single storey villas on the landmark avenue near Palm Strip are being prepared for offices. Yassid, working as an engineer for a construction company, said two blocks, one of eight villas and one of 28 villas facing Jumeirah Beach Road would be turned into offices. Houses around the back that extend along the beach front will remain as residential houses, he said.
"These used to be villas and there were families. All we have to do is change the upstairs where there are 4 bedrooms. All these houses will be offices. On the back, it will stay as villas," said Yassid. He said he did not know where the families have moved to. "They just went away," he said, adding that annual rents for the properties might be around Dh 115,000. Further down new windowless shop fronts are getting their last coat of paints and electricity wired up. According to Toufik Ahmad, an electrician in one of the empty blocks, a supermarket will soon be opening there and next door will be a grocery shop. Villas are being refurbished in Jumeirah 3 to hold a currency exchange bureau, a sweet shop and another corner restaurant. Bianco restaurant opened just 5 days ago and more outlets are in the process of opening up too. At the Ahmad Bin Ali Muzafari Fard Supermarket in Umm Suquiem, Ali Assadi, the manager said the construction next door had flattened an old villa where a Pakistani family lived. Boards outside the site show a number of shops in the wind tower style with a cosmopolitan crowd outside. "Shops are good but families need somewhere to live or otherwise there will be no one at the shops. The new bus stop outside my shop is very bad for business. People can?t park there anymore. Business is going down," said Assadi. Recently-constructed villas on Jumeirah Beach road already have businesses inside despite the fact air-conditioning and electricity is only running due to generators.
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