marina development focus
BESPOKE DESIGN
The challenges in physically developing large scale marinas are an ongoing learning curve, as Aldar’s Lane explains: “This region has always had a particularly high market share of ownership of large vessels, and the new emerging markets in Asia and Russia, also have increasing numbers of large boat owners so the global fleet of super and mega yachts is growing dramatically. Designing marinas to accommodate them is a challenge, particularly for the custom yachts as no two vessels are alike. “In terms of the cost of supporting infrastructure, if you look at Yas Marina, which is the first real custom-built super yacht marina in the region, some of the vessels need a 600 amp three-phase power supply. You also need relatively deep water, so there is the cost of excavation and dredging; and the structures that these vessels tie up to need to be heavy duty concrete floating docks due to the weight which can be thousands of tonnes. So there is significant increased cost in developing a single slip to accommodate a large scale vessel, compared to providing a high number of slips for much smaller vessels.” As part of larger mixed-use developments,
marina projects haven’t always commanded the right level of attention, as Horrigan explains: “With waterfront recreation a major focus for this region we’ve got past that early perception that you can float a marina in at the end. Some years ago we were always the add-on, and the architect or town planner would decide the design of the marina basin and when we were brought in after the event we faced the resulting challenges. So you get something like Marina Walk in Dubai where people are walking from a remote parking with supplies, children etc. and it becomes a mess, mixing bad traffic. It’s also a nightmare for things like emergency planning.
The future of the region’s marina industry is con tingent not only on the continued appetite for big boats and the financing to develop new locations, but on the combined efforts of the industry to promote the Gulf and Middle East as a multi-appeal destination
“You need to work with hotel and residential developers to make sure
that the marinas coming online have a proper allowance for their operational requirements once you understand the demographic of the community; thus enabling you to structure the marina to offer the right sort of berthing provision and effectively target the spending patterns of people coming in, so everyone is more commercially successful. “We are certainly very involved in the early stages of any master planned development, and with early integration we can provide projections for utility load, set the parameters for goods vehicles and operational traffic, access points etc. Nobody likes to undo bad work, and what’s happened previously is that there have been some pretty marinas that don’t work well, so as soon as a better marina comes along all the boats leave.”
6
MIX AND MATCH
Despite the preponderance of super-size vessels, both developers cater to the broader customer base across their facilities. “Part of our brand philosophy is that we design a facility aimed at a particular market segment, so in the case of a big marina it may look like one large marina from the outside but will have a mix of internal components,” says Aldar’s Lane. “We do that primarily because if you look at large yacht owners they
want a certain level of service and luxury, and a balance of security and privacy, whereas at entry level – the small wakeboard boats, water skis, fishermen, and people who just want access to the water – there isn’t the same need for glamour and luxury and they are perhaps looking at a more price-driven product,” he adds. And within Aldar’s marina portfolio there will be a mixed offering, as
Lane elaborates: “Yas Marina has berths from 15 to 70 metres, and we can accommodate up to 150-metre long vessels. We do sell slips to vessels as small as 10 metres, so there is overlap, but the focus there is primarily high end. “If you look at Al Bandar Marina the slips are primarily nine to 12 metres in
length, so that is more focused on the residential and community feel. If we had a watersports marina we’d see six, nine and 12 metre slips, but there will always be a 24 or 30-metre slip in there, because you maximise the available space. What we do is pick a positioning, type of product, level of service and comfort, and price position, and build around that.” Horrigan echoes this, and says: “We might have three different marinas in
Dubai but each one would have a very different focus. One might be a sailing marina, another a hotel-retail events type marina, and the third a residential marina; so even within one location there are different niches.”
7
IDEAL ENVIRONMENT
Another consideration is investment in quality equipment as the harsh marine environment can drastically reduce the shelf life of a marina. According to Horrigan, 25 years is standard, dependent on the type of system selected, use of wave attenuators and good civil works, combined with preventive maintenance – which can take 10 years off the shelf life if poorly executed. Lane adds: “The better floating dock systems have a 50-year life span now.
In terms of MEP systems they fall under a shorter life cycle as they live in an environment that is constantly in motion.” Regional considerations also impact construction, as Lane explains:
“We’ve stayed away from timber decked pontoons because it isn’t an environmentally-friendly product anymore in reality, unless you can guarantee it’s from a sustainable forest, plus it doesn’t react very well in this part of the world to heat, there’s very high exposure to UV, and varying
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/jun-sep 2010
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