DUBAI-Bethesda, MD-based Marriott International Inc. has announced that it plans to open the world’s tallest hotel here in fourth quarter 2012. The 1,608-room JW Marriott Marquis Dubai is being developed by the locally based Emirates Group airline company.
The two twin buildings on the site will be 1,164 feet tall, the highest dedicated hotel building in the world and just 85 feet shorter than the Empire State building in New York City. The cost for the property was announced as about $218 million in 2005, but that cost has reportedly increased to $490 million. One 807-room tower will open in the fourth quarter, and the other will open in mid-2013.
A Marriott spokesman tells GlobeSt.com that this will be the company’s first Marquis brand outside of the United States.
The Marquis endorsement is reserved for iconic properties in the Marriott International portfolio, defined by their scale, grandeur and location. “The (hotel) sends a strong signal about how Marriott International views Dubai’s growing importance and global influence,” the spokesman says.
The property will also be the biggest hotel in the country by number of rooms when it is completely open next year, in anticipation of garnering much of the country’s conference business. The hotel will have two ballrooms, 24 meeting rooms and about 55,000 square feet of event space.
Rupprecht Queitsch, general manager, said in a statement that aside from the Emirates plans bringing travelers, the hotel should attract a lot of business from foreign firms now opening offices in the country from China and India. The conference business is expected to contribute $106 billion to the country’s GDP.
"The hotel will fill a long identified gap in the market where groups, meetings and conventions of up to 1,000 people can meet, sleep and dine under one roof, in one location,” Queitsch said. “There are businesses of this size choosing various cities around the world in which to meet, but until now, Dubai has not had a single location of this size to accommodate this type of group. In simple terms, we will establish Dubai on the global conference market landscape."
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