Al Fajer Properties, a leading real estate company in the region, said it has completed the construction of five of its nine towers in the first phase of Jumeirah Business Center (JBC) project,  in record time.

The 5 JBC towers, once handed over, will add 2 million sq ft of office space and an additional 83,000 sq ft of retail space within the Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) Community, a company statement said.

This achievement comes within the last 12 months since disbanding the old management team coupled with an extensive restructuring of the company, it added.

The strengthening of the company's balance sheet by Dh3.2 billion ($872 million) well before the global financial crisis makes Al Fajer one of the strongest developers in the local market today.

This is purely owing to its decisive course of action, implemented within the first 90 days of the new management team coming on board, the statement added.

Even though Al Fajer felt the impact of the national cement shortage, the extraordinary efforts by Al Ahmadiah Contracting (Al Fajer's main contractor), enabled the project to achieve a rate of a 4-day cycle per floor for phase 1, which today has resulted in 5 towers being built in a span of twelve months.

Two of the superstructures in first phase are currently in the process of having their construction cranes dismantled with the scheduling of all construction cranes to be removed across the 5 towers by the end of the month.

The first phase is due for hand over in the last quarter of 2009 with deployment of phase 2 - JBC 6 and Ebony/Ivory towers, well underway.

'We have achieved our most significant milestone to date and I am extremely pleased with the results. I would also like to thank all the various project teams involved in helping us to reach this goal since the change in management,' Sheikh Maktoum bin Hasher Al Maktoum was quoted as saying.

'Our results are testimony to what proper management and a Tier 1 rated construction company can achieve in record time.'

Andre Van Schalkwyk, project director of Al Ahmadiah was quoted as saying, 'This could only have been achieved through the streamlined processes and standards created by the new management team along with effective decision making and timely execution.'

'We are proud to be part of such a great achievement,' he added.-TradeArabia News Service