Rakeen to open $200m property development in Georgia next year

Tbilisi: Rakeen, a developer owned by the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, plans to open a $200-million (Dh734 million) residential, office and shopping complex in Georgia in 2011.

The 72,836-square-metre development will open in the third quarter of next year, Lasha Machavariani, a marketing consultant for Rakeen in Georgia, said in an e-mailed statement on Monday.

Rakeen has invested $70 million to date in the "Uptown Tbilisi" project, Machavariani said.

Rakeen paid $65 million for 49 per cent of Georgia's Black Sea Poti port in December 2008, after previously winning a government competition to develop the port and acquiring a 51 per cent stake. It is also set to build an airport in Poti, which hosts the country's only special economic zone to attract investors.

In January, Rakeen hired Harradine Golf AG of Switzerland to design and build Georgia's first 18-hole golf course near the capital.