Muscat While construction is slowing down in some of the waterfront projects in Oman, one project is moving at a steady pace. The Wave, Muscat the largest and first waterfront master planned community within an ITC (integrated tourism complex) in the country, has been fortunate to not just survive the downturn but also take its plans to realisation without facing much disruption.
Achieving a key milestone this month, the project is opening phase one of its retail precinct. "The first phase of retail will open on March 5, followed by the opening of the first phase of the marina scheduled for September. The golf course will be operational after summer," confirms Michael Lenarduzzi, CEO, The Wave, Muscat.
The developer claims to have sold 1,000 residential units, and handed over more that 600 properties. As many as 350 homes will be completed by the end of this year. "When the downturn began, we actually took that as an opportunity to sit back and reflect. We completely revisited our master plan and product offering by broadening our product reach to meet a larger segment of people, and most importantly re-aligned our pricing without changing the overall positioning of The Wave," says Michael.
A mixed-use project, The Wave, Muscat will offer 4,000 residential units, and will feature four hotels, retail facilities, a 400-berth marina and an 18-hole Greg Norman championship golf course.
Among the new retail outlets coming up are a flagship WHSmith store, one of UK's leading outlets for books, stationery and souvenirs. It will occupy around 164 square metres of prime space. Earlier last year, the developer signed a tenancy agreement with Asha Enterprises, a sub-division of the Ajit Khimji Group, to manage a number of retail outlets at The Wave.
Property purchase at The Wave, Muscat enables buyers to qualify for a residency visa. However, the developer claims that 95 per cent of residential sales are driven by the local Omani market. With the development scheduled for completion by 2018, pricing for homes start from 74,000 omani riyals (Dh704,634). While The Wave, Muscat could see happy endings, other projects of similar nature have suffered setbacks in the course of the downturn. Prominent among them is Blue City, which was Oman's largest waterfront development when launched in 2006.
