Dubai: Al Fajer Properties (AFP) on Friday said it has completed the superstructures for Phase 1 - five of its nine towers - in record time, a move that could help boost investor confidence.

The five Jumeirah Business Centre (JBC) towers, once handed over, will add two million square feet of office space and an additional 83,000 square feet of retail space within the Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) Community.

This achievement comes within the last 12 months since disbanding the old management team coupled with an extensive restructuring of the company.

The strengthening of the company's balance sheet by Dh3.2 billion well before the global financial crisis makes AFP today one of the strongest developers in the local market owing purely to its decisive course of action, implemented within the first 90 days of the new management team coming on board.

"We have achieved our most significant milestone to date and I am extremely pleased with the results. Our results are testimony to what proper management and a Tier-I construction company can achieve in record time," Shaikh Maktoum Bin Hasher Al Maktoum, President of Al Fajer Properties, said in a statement.

Even though AFP felt the impact of the well known national cement shortage, the extraordinary efforts by Al Ahamadiah Contracting, AFP's main contractor, enabled the project to achieve a rate of a 4-day cycle per floor for Phase 1, which today has resulted in five towers being built in a span of 12 months.

Two of the superstructures in Phase 1 are currently in the process of having their construction cranes dismantled. All construction cranes are to be removed across the five towers by the end of the month.

Phase 1 is due for hand over in the last quarter of 2009 with deployment of Phase 2 - JBC 6 and Ebony/Ivory towers, well underway.

Andre Van Schalkwyk, Project Director of Al Ahmadiah, was quoted as saying: "This could only have been achieved through the streamlined processes and standards created by the new management team along with effective decision making and timely execution. We are proud to be part of such a great achievement."

AFP is the premier developer in the Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) community and is the only developer to include a five-floor atrium within the lobbies of its towers.

Its nine towers, situated within a freezone, once completed will offer high-end commercial properties attracting both large local companies and multi-national organisations from around the world.

The facilities of the JBC Towers cumulatively offer exclusive freehold offices totalling a leaseable area of 3.6 million square feet.