Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
THE planned 'iconic' structure which was to have housed the Four Seasons Hotel at Bahrain Bay will now be a much more 'low-key proposition'.
Positioned off the north-eastern shore of Manama, the $2.5 billion waterfront development designed around neighbourhoods of residential, commercial and retail spaces, all based upon the concept of an island connected by two bridges forming an inner harbour.
The community will be anchored by three key developments: the kingdom's only Four Seasons Hotel, CapitaLand's first GCC development, Raffles City Bahrain and the new HQ building for Arcapita, an international investment firm and lead investor in the project.
Bahrain Bay chief executive Bob Vincent told GulfWeekly's sister international business magazine, The Gulf: "The revised concept has moved away from being an extremely tall, iconic business hotel to what is a more general business, family and tourist hotel which meets the market."
The design was to have comprised a 285m high tower on its own island to the forefront of the development offering 220 premium rooms. But this has now been scaled down both in terms of height and prices aimed at making it more attractive to a wider market.
In early October last year there were rumours that the hotel group had pulled out of the development completely but this was denied.
It appears the decision early on in Bahrain Bay's concept to prohibit off-plan selling and instead 'over capitalise' means this is one major project, unlike others across the region, that is going ahead, even if not completely as planned, despite the economic downturn.
Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, a world leading architecture and urban design firm based in New York, the master-plan for Bahrain Bay has been designed to create a fusion of neighbourhoods, open spaces, entertainment, retail and commercial areas which, together as Bahrain Bay, will aim to serve as a symbol of Bahrain's promising future.
