Dubai’s highly anticipated new lifestyle and business destination, opened its doors and welcomed its first wave of tenants, including Julius Baer, Natixis, Latham & Watkins, and Akin Gump. The 53-storey, 1.1 million square feet commercial property offers dining, retail and community spaces alongside Grade A workspace. Building’s anchor tenant, said it expects to move into the property in October, while an Arts Club, a chef-driven food hall, health and fitness club, and a community hub, will open later this year. The opening comes as companies continue to debate the pros and cons of employees working from home in a post-Covid world. The increased demand for flexible offices, and the growth in remote working, may have been trends that pre-dated the onset of the global coronavirus pandemic, but their influence has certainly been exacerbated by it. Throw into the mix the requirements for social distancing and other restrictions and it is clear the traditional office set-up as we knew it, prior to Covid-19, could well be a thing of the past.
Located in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), ICD Brookfield Place features 990,000 square feet of Grade A office space alongside 160,000 square feet of retail amenities including private members club, The Arts Club. Aspects of the base build, such as the air filtration system which increases fresh air by 30 percent, along with UV air treatment, helps protect against the spread of infection. As businesses transition back to physical workplaces, finding ways to respond to the health and safety of the workforce is more important than ever before. ICD Brookfield Place is at the cutting edge of health-centric building design.