Source : Business Times - 29 Jan 2009
Burt Hill, the US architectural firm that designed a motor-racing theme park in the United Arab Emirates, has cut about 20 per cent of its workforce there as the global credit crisis forces property developers to fire employees and delay projects.
Burt Hill, based in Philadelphia, reduced the staff at its Dubai operation by 111, according to an e-mail on Tuesday.
The company also has an office in Abu Dhabi and now has about 500 employees in the UAE.
Developers across the UAE are struggling to finance projects and sell real estate after credit dried up and a five-year surge in property prices ended. Nakheel PJSC, a state-owned company that’s considering an initial public offering, this month delayed the construction of the world’s tallest building.
‘This staffing adjustment has come as a result of the slowdown that the property sector as a whole is experiencing,’ Haydar Hassan, a director of Burt Hill, said in the statement.
MotorCity, the theme park that Burt Hill designed for Union Properties PJSC, will comprise homes, commercial complexes and a hotel.
Dubai opened its property market to foreign investment in 2002. This, combined with low interest rates, fuelled a jump in real estate prices that lasted until 2008.
Residential property values declined 8 per cent in the fourth quarter from the previous three months, Colliers CRE plc said on Jan 13.
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