Abu Dhabi is to get a new Dh500 million ($136 million) five-star coastal landmark, The Emirates Pearl, a joint venture project between Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC) and the Atlas Group.

Construction of The Emirates Pearl is to begin this summer and is expected to take two years to complete.
The hotel and serviced apartment resort, including an iconic 240 m tower, will be built on the capital’s Khalidiya coast, opposite the prestigious seven-star Emirates Palace Hotel. The business and leisure resort centres around the 47-storey tower conceptualised in a new-generation podium style designed by Austria’s award-winning architect Dennis Lems.
The tower, which houses 352 rooms and suites and 104 apartments, all with balconies and Gulf views, sits on a 22-m-high five-storey podium, which features a 20-m-high atrium with five restaurants, service centres, offices, a gym, hair salon, spa, meeting rooms, business centre and shops. Serviced apartments are a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom units.
The resort will also have a private penthouse complete with helipad and two Presidential suites with their own private entrance, swimming pool, meeting rooms and lounges. Executive floor guests will benefit from an indoor swimming pool, meeting room, gym and café.
“This is a signature development for the southwest end of Abu Dhabi Corniche and is another step forward in the capital’s plan to have 25,000 hotel rooms by 2015,” says TDIC managing director and director general of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority Mubarak Al Muhairi.
 Designed to bring a new era of contemporary style to the capital, The Emirates Pearl is being built in a twisting glass design and guests will be welcomed at its entrance by a figurehead sculpture of an Arab hunting scene.
“The hotel’s interiors have been conceptualised by MKV Design of London, which has been behind some of the most successful and acclaimed new hotel build and renovations in Europe,” says Atlas Group president Ahmed Seddiq Al Mutawaa.
The resort will feature an extensive ballroom with two entrances – one of them privately accessible from outside the property and which has been designed as a multi-purpose arena for product launches and substantial social functions.