Palm Jumeriah Exploration

A group of about 10 Purdue University Civil Engineering students and 2 teachers stopped by the office. They are on a trip to see what is going on over here and they called ahead and scheduled time with a few construction firms that would entertain their visit. And I guess Hill HQ back in Jersey is trying to build a relationship with the school as well.

Anyway we gave them a presentation and then piled in a bus and went out on the Palm Jumeriah. We just did it with out asking for permission because Joe the PM that helped manage the construction of the entire thing said they would have said no. Anyway, good times. We drove out to the end of fron ‘E.’ Almost most of the residential is build, the outer circle will have hotels and they are still going up. The thing is years behind schedule. But people who bough in back in ’02 have tripled their money on a house they may have paid near $2mm for before it was build, and back then it was just air over water. They place is empty. Not too many people actually live out there. They are building a monorail to run the length of if, from Sheikh Zayed Road to the huge family resort at the top of the palm.

The house was nice. It has some unique tile work that was only in that house. It had a special pool too. The fron is over a mile long off the trunk. The villas are side by side all the way out. At the end of the frons are the biggest homes. Across the water was a huge place owned by a sheikh. I was told the inside was like a hotel. A floor of nothing but bedrooms, and two thirds of it is underground. A disco, a movie theatre, and a huge kitchen. I made a video of the villa. I will get it up on the web when I have my package sent from the states with my telephone software in a few weeks when I have a place to send it to.

All over Dubai, because we have Western educated PMs running these projects, the construction is safe. The skill of the work force is less than to be desired. The entire cities that have crumbled in China are the result of cutting corners. I mean imagine if tens of thousands of buildings were to crumble in the states. The lawyers would have to open a new university to educate all that would be needed to sue everyone. The Three Gorges Dam in China scares me, I don’t really have too much faith in their construction standards anymore. I saw on TV a while back them pouring concrete into molds, and the stones were river bottom rocks that are smooth and good for skipping. Those are not what you want in concrete, you need rocks with corners and edges and can grip to the slurry. I did learn a few things at Vulcan Materials. This is a dam that is like 2 miles wide or something.

Anyway, there was no way anyone can get out to where I was on the Palm except if you know someone, there is some security, I guess there was a time when tourist just drove out and about and people did not drop that kind of coin to have tourist traffic. Speaking of which will be a nightmare once that place gets moved into, if ever. Global snowbirds I think are half the investors. The landscaping on some of the villas does not exist. Some areas are run down, some are lived in. A green lawn over here requires hard work and water. I remember in AZ if you watered at the wrong time you could boil away and entire springs worth of fresh blooms. They are building a mall with a supermarket and all that kind of stuff at the base of the palm. Now that I have seen it, I would say it would be a great vacation home in the winter for a Euro, but to live there right now would be depressing. All the technology it took to build the place is very impressive and can keep a geek like me fascinated for weeks, but daddy’s little girl who likes to spend money may find the local neighborhood lacking. It is truly a get-away place or a suburb. If you go out and get yourself some booze and a DZ it could be a real place to party, but that is easier said than done. I think the idea is the outer ring will have hotels and places to party and you can drive to them at the top where I believe it is connected. There are no boats in the palm, the water is very clean.

OK, I need to get back to work. I am expected to hire people.
I am still in a rush to find the right apartment. I have places in the Residences by the Burj to move into but they don’t have a view. I need to wake up and look at that tower. I will have my work visa in my hand by end of day. That will be cool. I piece of paper with my mug shot that says I can work in the UAE. I am a resident. Nice.

Later-
BrotherBill