UAE's Rotana sees Q2 launch for delayed hotels

Rotana, the Abu Dhabi hotelier, will open three hotels in the UAE capital between April and July 2012 after construction delays pushed back the properties’ launch, the company’s CEO said. The trio of hotels were scheduled to open at Abu Dhabi's US $2.3bn Capital Centre development this year but have seen “natural” construction hold-ups, said Selim El Zyr. Arabian Business reported in August the launches had been postponed, after the architect overseeing the properties said the hotels were now scheduled to open between January and May. News of projects’ holdup was first revealed by the architect overseeing the projects last month,“Two of them are set for April, one in July,” El Zyr said on the sidelines of the CEO Middle East Awards in Dubai. “Construction delays are natural, a few months delay is anticipated in the business. No projects finish on time, this is one of the problems.” The four-star, 300-room Capital Centre Rotana, previously slated for completion in July, will now open its doors in April, along with the Centro Capital Centre Rotana, he said. The hotelier’s third property, the Capital Centre Arjaan by Rotana, will complete in July. Privately-held Rotana said in December it would launch seven properties in 2011 representing an investment of $800m and making it the UAE’s largest single hotel player with 33 hotels under management. El Zyr said the company also plans to open 25 mid-market hotels across the Middle East by 2015, in a bid to tap into a growing demand for high-quality but modestly-priced rooms. The expansion, which is forecast to create 3,000 jobs, will help the company to meet tightened visa schemes that call for firms to employ higher numbers of Gulf nationals, he said.