During a glittering gala dinner that took place on Tuesday 8 May at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi, Cityscape Abu Dhabi presented the eagerly anticipated Cityscape Real Estate Awards. Designed to celebrate excellence in real estate development and investment throughout the Middle East, industry professionals from around the region gathered to honour their peers for their outstanding achievements.
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Winners at the Cityscape
Abu Dhabi Awards Ceremony
Seven of the most recognized and highly acclaimed international industry figures had been assembled to judge the entries. The panel consisted of Rushdi Siddiqui Global Director, Dow Jones Islamic Index, USA; John Sandwick, Managing Director, Encore Management SA, Switzerland; Blair Hakgull, Managing Director, Urban Land Institute & Jones Lang Lasalle, UAE; Rohan Marwaha, Group Director Cityscape; Stan Eichelbaum, President, Marketing Developments, USA; Courtney Fingar, Editor, Foreign Direct Investment Magazine, FT Business and Brian Caplen, Editor in Chief Foreign Direct Investment Magazine & Editor, The Banker Magazine FT Business.
Entries for the awards ceremony were sorted into five key areas, creating a total of 12 distinct award categories. The five fields chosen were, finance, marketing, environment, industry and development. In finance Dubai Islamic Bank was honoured with the 'Best Islamic Real Estate Finance Award' and Arab Real Estate Investment Trust, scooped the award for 'Most Innovative Finance Award'.
Dedicated awards were also designated for marketing and the environment with the 'Best Real Estate Marketing Campaign Award' going to Pentominium, Trident International Holdings and The Future Energy Company taking the 'Best Environmental Real Estate Project Award', for their MASDAR initiative. In the industry section two categories were up for grabs with the 'Best Property Manager/Agent/Broker Award' being bagged by Colliers International and Gold Crest Dreams Future Homes winning the 'Best Real Estate Consultant Award'.
In the area of development, six award categories come under the generic term of 'Best Developer'. The award for 'Waterfront Development' went to TDIC for their unique Saadiyat Island project; the award for 'Retail Project' was handed to MAWARED; Sorouh Real Estate accepted the award for 'Commercial Project'; the 'Residential Project' went to Emaar Properties; TDIC picked up their second award of the evening in the 'Mixed Use Project' category and the special award for 'Corporate Social Responsibility' was bestowed on Makan Consulting Engineers for Bay Mosque.
Mark Goodchild, Exhibition Manager, Cityscape Abu Dhabi, said, "The Cityscape Real Estate Awards were keenly contested and it was an extremely tough task for the judges to choose just twelve winners. However the aim of the awards is to promote and celebrate industry excellence in key market and project areas and in that respect, real estate throughout the Middle East is the overall winner."
Source: Cityscape
