Dubai Municipality has awarded a Dh1.8-billion ($489 million) contract for the development of its giant Arena project, which will feature three hotel and office buildings as well as a huge conference hall in the UAE emirate, said a report.

The Dubai Conference Centre (Arena) project, wil come up in Al Jaddaf over a sprawling 55,000-sq-m area, facing Dubai Festival City, reported the state news agency Wam.

The main elements of the project are: the 190,000-sq-ft Sheikh Rashid Hall for conferences that can accommodate 10,000 people with seating designed like a theatre, for global conferences, seminars, meetings, music concerts and theatrical shows, it stated.

Announcing the project, Hussain Nasser Lootah, the director-general of Dubai Municipality, said the Arena is one of the most important tourism projects to be carried out in the emirate.

"It is one of the large projects that will be carried out by the department to host World Expo 2020. The project will provide three hotel and office buildings as well as a huge conference hall, to cater for the fact that fairs and conferences tourism is a main area of attraction, he stated.

Lootah pointed out that the project is characterised by having "a magical location with a distinctive panoramic view over Dubai Creek, considered a perfect destination for business people and tourists".

The main hall will be divided into three levels and boast of the best and latest technologies in display and audio devices as well as cinema screens which provide multiple services, such as video conferencing and movie displays.

It will be boosted with five sub-halls (sub-conference halls and multi-purpose halls) with a total area of 10,500 sq ft. Each hall can accommodate up to 1,000 persons, stated the report.

The main hall and the sub-hall have been linked to hotel buildings and offices through the concourse building. This is a covered and air-conditioned glass corridor, designed like a boulevard, that contains shops and restaurants. It will be 25 m high, 150 m long, and have an area of 50,000 sq ft.

The project will boast of two hotels - a three-star property on 33 floors with an area of 250,000 sq ft, and a four-star hotel comprising 48 floors, with an area of 410,000 sq ft, said the report.

There will be a 36-storey building dedicated for offices with an area of 310,000 sq ft, while the ground floor of the hotels will be dedicated for commercial use. Parking lots, located in the basement with an area of 700,000 sq ft, will be able to accommodate about 1,800 cars, it added.