Business Bay is a central business district under construction in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The project features numerous skyscrapers located in an area where Dubai Creek will be dredged and extended. Business Bay will have upwards of 240 buildings, comprising commercial and residential developments. The infrastructure of Business Bay has been completed in 2008, and the entire development is expected to be completed between 2012-2015. Business Bay is part of the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashed Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, and Ruler of Dubai. Business Bay will be a new ‘city’ within the city of Dubai and is being built as a commercial, residential and business cluster along a new extension of Dubai Creek extending from Ras Al Khor to Sheikh Zayed Road. Covering an area of 64,000,000 square feet (5,900,000 m2), once completed it will comprise office and residential towers set in landscaped gardens with a network of roads, pathways and canals. It will become the region’s business capital as well as a freehold city. There will be over 230 towers in the Business Bay district.
Bay Square is a mixed-use community within Business Bay. The entire development will be a pedestrian-only zone, and will include walkways over canals. It will cover over 2,400,000 square feet (220,000 m2) and will be located 1 km away from Sheikh Zayed Road within Business Bay. When completed it will comprise canals, sidewalks, restaurants, cafes and retail stores. It will have 1,600,000 sq ft (150,000 m2) of office space; Bay Square will host numerous small and medium-sized enterprises. When Bay Square completes there will be approximately 575 offices with an average size of 2,000 sq ft (190 m2). Bay Square is expected to be completed in 2010. It will comprise the following buildings: Bay Square Commercial Building, Bay Square Hotel, Bay Square Office Building (10 Office Buildings in total), and Bay Square Residential Building.
Bay Avenue is an arena of two levels of indoor and outdoor retail space. It will have cafes, restaurants, boutiques, showrooms, plazas, children’s play areas,and sporting facilities. However, nearly two years after completion, the first couple of shops are only nearing completion.
The Executive Towers at Business Bay consist of 12 towers, which includes residential, commercial and office towers. These are the first buildings to be completed in Business Bay and are located near its entrance. A three-storey podium connects all the towers in addition to the nearby Vision Tower, which is going to be connected by a special passage.
Dubai Creek Extension is a part of the Business Bay development. The plan involves the expansion of the current 14 km long Dubai Creek to 26.2 km. Dubai Creek will be extended from its original place to Business Bay to the Persian Gulf through Safa Park and Jumeirah. The project will be carried out in three phases. Completion was scheduled for 2007, but is now expected by the end of 2010. Some 10 kilometres of the total 12.2 kilometres of the Dubai Creek extension work has already been completed in Business Bay.
Business Bay is connected to Red Line of Dubai Metro with Business Bay Station, which opened on 25 April 2010, together with most of the remaining stations of Dubai Metro’s Red Line.
