CHI Development Group set to award contracts for Lime Tree project's phase 1

Dubai: Irish property developer, CHI Development Group, will soon award contracts for phase 1 of the Dh500 million 121-villa Lime Tree project at Nakheel's iconic Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai.

"We have already awarded a contract to Frayland to construct 42 villas under Phase II," Roger Wakeham, CHI Development Group's director of development, told Gulf News on Tuesday.

"We are currently in the final stages of negotiations with two leading contractors for the construction of 79-villa Phase I of Lime Tree project. We hope to break ground early 2007."

The project is slated for completion in the third quarter of 2008. He said the company has already bought a few plots of land in Dubai for development.

"This is part of a Dh1 billion portfolio of investments that we are bringing to the UAE," he said.

CHI has bought land parcels on Lime Tree Valley that surround part of 'Earth', the Eco-signature course designed by Greg Norman at the Jumeirah Golf Estates.

"All our projects are niche. We are not master or mass developers," he said.

"The villas will symbolise the essence of New Dubai, a luxury community living in a convenient location complete with all facilities. Construction has already begun on the golf course with initial earthworks and lake formation well progressed."