Al Habtoor plans $1.3bn hotel, Dubai leisure complex

Conglomerate Al Habtoor Group plans a new $1.33 billion hotel and entertainment complex in the Gulf Arab emirate, despite a punishing property collapse that has sent prices plunging from their 2008 peak.

Khalaf al-Habtoor, the group's chairman, said on Wednesday that the Habtoor Palace complex will begin construction in June and is slated to be completed in 40 months time.

The complex, made up of three hotels, a shopping arcade and theatre, will be on the existing site of another Habtoor hotel which is to be demolished in April.

"We will go ahead with the project despite the fact that there is no appetite in the financial sector to fund projects," Khalaf Al Habtoor said. "We will be depending on our own cash flow. I don't believe in bonds, I believe in the revenue of the group."

Al Habtoor, which has a joint venture construction firm with Australia's Leighton Group, has car distribution and leasing, education and publishing operations.