"It will be very difficult to leave": Residents bid farewell to Dubai's Toyota building

Dubai: Since 1970s, a bright red Toyota sign illuminated the roof of a residential building on Sheikh Zayed Road, turning it into one of Dubai’s most recognisable landmarks.

The Nasser Rashid Lootah Building, better known as the Toyota Building, has stood along Sheikh Zayed Road for more than five decades. While it is now surrounded by some of Dubai’s tallest and most modern skyscrapers, the 15-storey building has retained a distinctive place in the city’s skyline and the memories of generations of residents.

Now, that chapter is coming to an end.

The building management told Gulf News on Thursday that the landmark property is scheduled for demolition in 2027. Gulf News was the first to report that the building is set to be demolished.

Around 70 per cent of tenants have already left the building, according to its management, with many residents moving out amid the ongoing issues affecting the property. Despite its ageing interiors and dated facilities, residents say its prime location and affordability made it difficult to leave.

One resident, who did not wish to be named, said their family had lived in the building for six years.

“We have lived in the Toyota Building for six years as a family. Although the building is quite old and outdated compared to the rest of the modern skyscrapers, it still stood out amongst all of them,” the resident said.

“The location was one of the reasons why we continued to stay here despite it being an old building. It is in a prime location in the heart of the city.”

The resident said the family had also built strong relationships with neighbours and would particularly miss the views of Dubai’s New Year’s Eve fireworks.

“We have made a lot of memories in our few years here with our neighbours. During New Year’s Eve, we would get great views of the fireworks. We will miss that,” the resident said.

For some long-time Dubai residents, the building represents more than a place to live. It is part of a very different Dubai.

Raz Khan, who has lived in Dubai since 1983, never lived in the Toyota Building but grew up nearby. He lived on 51st Street in Jumeirah 1, around five minutes from the building and next to the former Dubai Zoo. He remembers spending time around the building during the early 2000s, playing cricket with children who lived there.

“Every day, on my way back from my university, AUS, I’d park under the Toyota Building between 4pm and 5pm. We used to play cricket downstairs,” he said.

“The building kids and the wonderful mechanics of the car repair shop downstairs would join us, and the staff from the famous takeaway, British Tandoor, would join us too.”

One of the children he regularly played with was Saad. Years later, their paths crossed again through cricket. “He ended up playing for the University of Wollongong in Dubai while I was the cricket coach and we won the Nissan Gulf Cup 2008-2009. How about that as a coincidence?” Khan said.

Khan also remembers a time when Sheikh Zayed Road looked dramatically different from the high-rise corridor it is today.

“That particular area of Dubai, Sheikh Zayed Road, during the 1990s and early 2000s were a lot of core memories for me,” he said. He recalled Thunderbowl, a popular bowling, pool and snooker venue and games centre located across the road from the Toyota Building.

Thunderbowl was eventually demolished after closing around 2008 or 2009, marking another change to an area that has since been transformed by Dubai’s rapid development.

For longtime residents, the Toyota Building is now one of the few remaining reminders of that earlier era of Sheikh Zayed Road.

Indian expatriate Himanshu SK, a travel agent who has lived in the UAE for the past four and a half years, recently posted a video on Instagram bidding farewell to the building. He told Gulf News that he had lived there for three years, across both Block A and Block B.

“The location of the building is one of the best, and it is in a prime area. It will be really difficult to find a place in Downtown Dubai that offers such affordable rents,” SK said.

“The majority of the residents have already moved out. I lived in both Block A and Block B and made a lot of memories here. This building has been a huge part of my life in Dubai, so it is going to be very difficult to leave.”

Other residents have also called the building home for decades, witnessing the transformation of Sheikh Zayed Road and Downtown Dubai from a comparatively low-rise part of the city into one of the world’s most recognisable urban skylines.

The planned demolition also sparked an emotional response on social media, with many users describing the Toyota Building as an important part of Dubai’s history and calling for it to be renovated rather than demolished.

Several users reminisced about growing up in an older Dubai, sharing memories of seeing the distinctive building along Sheikh Zayed Road and arguing that it should be preserved as a symbol of the city’s heritage.

“Renovate the building. It’s part of Dubai’s story and heritage. This building is a marker of our city’s skyline,” one social media user said.

Another said the building had been a familiar sight since childhood. “I’m so used to seeing this building every time I drive down Sheikh Zayed Road. I have always seen this building since my childhood. Most of the old buildings near Defence Roundabout are sadly gone.”

The Nasser Rashid Lootah Building is scheduled for demolition in 2027, while residents with existing rental contracts can remain until December 2026.

The majority of tenants have already moved out, with the building management saying the power supply to the property had been disconnected.

The management said it was not aware of why the electricity had been disconnected and attributed the matter to Dubai Municipality. The management also said the issue was linked to a number of partitioned apartments in the building, although this was not confirmed.

Completed in 1974, the Nasser Rashid Lootah Building was among the early landmarks along what would later become Sheikh Zayed Road’s high-rise corridor.

The 15-storey residential building became widely known as the Toyota Building after a prominent neon Toyota sign was installed on its roof in 1981.

The original sign remained a familiar feature of Dubai’s skyline for around four decades before it was removed in 2018 after the advertising contract expired. Toyota UAE restored the familiar logo in June 2022, bringing back a feature that had become closely associated with the building.

The property contains one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.

Its planned demolition in 2027 will bring an end to more than five decades of history for one of Sheikh Zayed Road’s most recognisable residential buildings and for many Dubai residents, the disappearance of a landmark that was once a familiar part of their everyday lives.