Circa 2007, Dubai was literally and figuratively the hot spot on the map. The city’s masive office towers, hotels and master-planned communities were poised to drag the rest of the development community into the future. But even the super-charged city in the United Arab Emirates must answer to the cruel mistress of time and the vicissitudes of the global economy. “Dubai thought trees grow to the moon,” explains Mike Straneva, partner & Americas director at Ernst & Young. “It doesn’t happen.”
Sitting on the Arabian Peninsula of the Persian Gulf, Dubai surged into public consciousness with its ambitious developments during the boom years of the aughts. Web searches exploded seeking renderings of the Burj Dubai (now Burj Khalifa), the world’s tallest building, and the Palm Jumeirah; a master-planned community of man-made islands in the shape of palm trees visible from space.
“Overall, Dubai was really a hot market,” says Straneva. “It started off five years ago as an alternative for European people for second homes for travel and accelerated.” And construction was rampant.
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