Project Management at Palm Jumeirah Island - Case Study Example

Project Management (Palm Jumeirah Island) Grade Downfall of Palm Jumeirah Island The concept of mega project known as Jumeirah Palm Island was realized in Dubai. This project commenced in 2001, with reclamation beginning in the same year (Gibling, 2013). Towards the end of 2006, the Palm Island had its first residences consisting of 4,000 luxury apartments and villas that were dispensed over a phased period (Gibling, 2013). Ever since, the leisure, retail and tourism components of the Pal have been established, creating a world-renowned, spectacular tourism and residential destination. In this analysis, we will put more emphasis on the issue of risk during the execution of project that led to its downfall. We will also provide an in-depth analysis using management theories of the case of Palm Jumeirah Island project, debating on the ways in which the project was implemented and planned, how it was created, the problems it faced that led to its downfall and the upcoming consequences of it. Importance of Jumeirah Palm Island in Dubai Before going further into the discussion, let us look at Dubai and the importance of Jumeirah Palm being located there. The strategies employed in the creation of this project in Dubai have been embraced to expand the economy, especially the urban economy, striving for international city status and promoting the development of large scale projects. The formation of mega global projects afforded Dubai international status and attention as a country which attracts foreign visitors from different parts around the world (Azzam, 2002). The city in doing this, started to construct huge national real estate companies, embracing mega projects policy focusing on finance from the government, global and GCC investors (Taher & Hajjar, 2013). This led to the development of large transformation in the Dubai economy and population. The Dubai coastline is considered one of the man-made features in the world to be visible from space, making it ‘the eighth wonder of the world’ (Boermeester, 2015). The creation of Jumeirah Palm Island remains one of largest urban operations that have been carried out in the last years in the world. Although the Jumeirah Palm Island has received praise from all over the world, its downfall has been evident with management including planning, designing and implementation theories. According to Malkin (2001), there have been plumbing issues at Jumeirah Palm Island and residents have been forced to visit lavatories in a mall and wash in the sea after a pipe in one of the apartments ruptured. There have been other issues with Jumeirah Palm Island that have caused its downfall ranging from poor amenity services like plumbing, falling property prices to squeezed villas (Malkin, 2001). These downfall issues will be discussed in relation to management theories in the following manner, planning, designing and implementation. Planning Management Theory Planning in management involves the study of characteristics related to the Jumeirah Palm Island project, its environmental concerns as well as economic and financial issues within the Dubai community (Mason, 2003). All the planning schemes integrated in the project such as project design, identification, implementation and evaluation were used in the development of Jumeirah Palm Island. Three development stages were used: 1) identification of the project strategic goals; project design and formulation and 3) implementation of project. These development stages were required because there was need for more recreational coastal areas, implying more beaches were a strategy for the city. In addition to this, there was boom in the tourism sector that created demand for furnished flats and hotels. It seems that these reasons greatly affected the thinking of the planners to an extent that no significant attention was paid to the likelihood that such an immense project could result in damage in the future. One problem with planning as illustrated by Malkin (2011) is that Jumeirah Palm Island planned for small villas that were described as squeezing together with sky-high air conditioning bills. The squeezed villa plan have been deemed as unnecessarily expensive and to make matters worse, the worldwide financial crisis in 2008 reduced the price of property, making the villas to sell for 1.2 million pounds up from 1.8 million pounds (Malkin, 2011). Since the Dubai developers did not have a plan that forecast the worldwide financial crisis of 2008, the downfall of house prices meant the villas did not fetch the planned profit. Another planning problem that has led to the Jumeirah Palm Island’s downfall is the issue that has been discussed by engineers concerning the island sinking rate at 5 millimeters per year quicker than anticipated (Higgins, 2013). This problem has been attributed to poor planning and numerous individuals and investors have expressed their fears of purchasing flats apartments of villas in the island. This implies that the early purchases of properties in the island have made a considerable amount of loss because in the future the occupants may be required to evacuate the island as it continues to sink. Planning was not the only management problem that the island managers had that led to its downfall, design management problems were also a huge contributing factor. Designing Management Theory The planning problem is usually directly related to designing. Designing is considered the making of a convention or plan for the purpose of constructing of a system or object (Elsheshtawy, 2010). Design can also be defined as a strategy or roadmap approach for individuals to attain a distinct expectation (El-Haik & Roy, 2005). The design defines plans, parameters, social, political, legal, safety, economic and environmental constraint in attaining design objective. This design management theory can be applied to Jumeirah Palm Island. Dubai has constantly been pushing the limits of innovation and design, which have contributed greatly to its touristic appeal. The artificial design of the island is formed in the beautiful shape of a palm tree with crescent shaped breakwater barrier enclosing it partially (Higgins, 2013). An estimated 7 million tons of rocks in addition to 100 million cubic meters of construction sand was used. The elegant design of the island has a sub-sea tunnel that was mainly built to transport goods and people between the outer crescent sections and the inner palm of the island (Higgins, 2013). However, this beautiful design of the Jumeirah Palm Island has contributed to its downfall among other reasons. The island had problems and controversies that displeased the residents. Higgins (2013) in his journal article suggests that the design saw reduced lot sizes and the luxury was not as advertised. This has prevented potential buyers from acquiring properties on the island. This implies that profits from the sale of properties in the island will reduce as more potential buyers continue to perceive they were lied to. Another design issue in the same journal article had to do with the breakwater design that prevented movement of natural tidal wave, which led to seawater being stagnant inside the palm space. This contributed greatly to the sinking reports of the island that suggest the island is sinking at a quicker rate of 5 mm per year than anticipated. Implementation Management Theory Implementation in management has to do with the process of putting a specific plan or decision into effect (Pantelidis, 2014). Jumeirah Palm Island utilized this implementation management theory to oversee the completion of the island project. The implementation phases involved three phases: ground and reclamation improvement; utilities and infrastructure and development of the building. The first phase saw 27 months of sand transfer to create foundation of land in which 100 million cubic meters of rock and sand were put in the sea water (Garrison, 2002). The loose sand was jetted into the sea water to create very stable soil foundation. In the second phase, utilities and infrastructure were implemented to support the population of the individuals and businesses residing in the Palm (Murphy, 2008). This included electricity, water supply, public transport, communications, cooling and sewerage. The final phase was the development of the building. The buildings developed at Jumeirah Palm Island supports 2,400 apartments and 1,800 residents in villas in addition to 40 hotels (Cooper, 2008). The implementation phase that took into consideration planning and designing described above contributed greatly in the downfall of Jumeirah Palm Island. The reasons are several. First, the plumbing issues have become the norm in the island to a point where residents have to visit lavatories at malls and wash in the sea after a water pipe ruptured (Malkin, 2001). Since all the properties in the island utilize the same water pipes, it becomes unbearable to live there because of unavailable basic amenities. Another problem that led to its downfall has to do with the building of squeezed villas during the implementation phase (Malkin, 2001). This is contrary to what Jumeirah Palm Island advertised on media, with claims made at the company website that all the apartments in the complex provided spacious layouts with panoramic views to beach, garden and marina (Malkin, 2001). Jumeirah Palm Island Recommendations Projects that are of Jumeirah Palm Island magnitude create exponential risk to occupants residing there. The interest of the public is required in creating massive projects to be successful (Mull, Beggs & Renneisen, 2009). The assumption created from the construction of massive projects is that it will have a long and short-term economic impact on the city as a result of increased flow of tourists to it. The problem with this school of thought is that it causes controversy. Let us look at some of these controversies that pose risks to massive projects. The first one is cost risk. This comes from the cost of construction, operation and maintenance of the project. The second is demand risk. This has to do with forecasting demand of potential buyers of properties at Jumeirah Palm Island and the revenues that will be earned (Rehman, 2007). Politics is the third risk. Most of the time, government regulations hinder the development of mega structures because of financial problems that come from depleting government revenues resulting in misappropriation of funds from one project to another. This implies that planning, designing and implementation of mega schemes need management to be more vigilant in carrying out tasks in order to prevent problems from materializing that may jeopardize the project. Bibliography Azzam, H 2002, The Arab world facing the challenge of the new millennium, Tauris, London. Boermeester, S 2015, Best of Dubai Vol 1, Volume 1, Global Village Productions Ltd, London. Cooper, P 2008, Opportunity Dubai, Harriman House, Petersfield. El-Haik, B &Roy, D 2005, Service design for six sigma, John Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. 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