BSBG completes repurposing of City Walk building for Talabat tenancy

Words by BSBG Media Team, Tuesday 14 March 2023

Brewer Smith Brewer Group (BSBG) recently completed the planning and supervision of the repurposing for a retail building in City Walk, changing the use from a retail/F&B development to a commercial office location in preparation for becoming the regional headquarters of Talabat - the largest online food ordering company in the Middle East.

The new office is now home to 2,000 employees, including 400 developers and engineers, and becomes the base from which Talabat will serve nine regional markets: UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. BSBG produced the building drawings for the shell and core and modifications to the building’s façade, before supervising the works to ensure design intent was upheld.

BSBG partner Scott Orwin explained more about the project. “Our scope was to first manage planning approvals for a change of use from retail to a commercial office building,” he said. “With our client, we had to make the case that office use would be beneficial for the wider City Walk masterplan, which was previously largely retail and residential.”

The plans had to demonstrate that a change of use for two buildings in the masterplan (Building 6 is complete and is the regional Talabat HQ, while Building 3 is ongoing and will become the company’s Dubai base) would have a long-lasting and positive impact on the district, with no negative consequences in terms of traffic or parking. Scott continued: “I think the client saw a really positive impact at City Walk with Canadian University Dubai’s expansion to create a state-of-the-art campus in the neighbourhood, and we were able to demonstrate that bringing Talabat in would also benefit the development as a whole.”

Having received authority approvals for a masterplan modification, work commenced on transforming the building and preparing it for the interior fit-out to create a bespoke technology-driven hub for Talabat. “We did some demolition works on the interior of the building, we had to open some walls and introduce new windows, and also added an outdoor terrace on the roof,” Scott continued. “We had to look at the lifting strategy, how people would enter the building, where the lobby would be, how people access lifts, parking locations, and where the servicing, MEP and the IT would be located. As a technology hub, there was a lot of provision for IT and different mechanical systems so there was extensive planning around that to ensure it could be done.”

City Walk is part of a portfolio owned by Merex Investment Group, a Dubai-based joint venture between Dubai Holdings and Brookfield Asset Management that owns and operates retail assets including City Walk, The Beach and La Mer. “We’ve been fortunate to work alongside Merex to create The Pavilion at The Beach, and now this enhancement to one of their other key assets, both of which have added a dynamic new dimension to their respective locations,” Scott said. “Ultimately the repurposing of existing key assets is likely to become far more commonplace in Dubai as the market matures. It’s still quite new here but it makes a lot of sense if the right set of circumstances arise and modifications can be made; it can breathe new life into different areas.”

Spread across 100,000 ft2, the new three-storey Talabat office is designed with sustainability at its core. It features several environmentally friendly elements, such as a low-consumption water system, LED lighting, and open windows for natural light, reducing the building’s environmental impact. “I think the staff at Talabat are very happy there,” Scott finished by saying. “They were previously in a tower in Business Bay, but they were spread across a number of detached, smaller floors, so interconnectivity was quite challenging. The campus style really suits their model, and there are lots of lifestyle and wellness elements which have gone into the building to create an environment that ignites creativity, interaction, and ultimately innovation.”

BSBG Media Team

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