Dubai could build a $5 billion man-made ‘moon’ as the city’s real estate market booms

NICK EL HAJJ Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Who says you can’t reach for the moon? A proposed $5 billion real estate project wants to take skyscraper-studded Dubai to new heights — by bringing a symbol of the heavens down to Earth.

Canadian entrepreneur Michael Henderson envisions building a 900-foot replica of the moon atop a 100-foot building in Dubai, already home to the world’s tallest building and other architectural wonders.

<p>An artist's rendering shows billion MOON project envisioned on the Dubai Pearl, a coveted plot of land at the base of The Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.</p>

Moon World Resorts

An artist's rendering shows $5 billion MOON project envisioned on the Dubai Pearl, a coveted plot of land at the base of The Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Henderson’s project, dubbed MOON, may sound out of this world, but it could easily fit in this futuristic city-state. Dubai already has a red-hot real estate market, fueled by the wealthy who fled restrictions imposed in their home countries during the coronavirus pandemic and Russians seeking refuge amid Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

Even though a previous booms-and-bust cycle saw many grand projects collapse, Henderson and others suggest his vision, funded by Moon World Resorts Inc., where he is the co-founder, might not be that far-fetched.

“We have the biggest ‘brand’ in the world,” Henderson told The Associated Press, suggesting the moon itself — the heavenly body — was his brand. “Eight billion people know our brand, and we haven’t even started yet.”

The project Henderson proposes includes a destination resort inside the spherical structure, complete with a 4,000-room hotel, an arena capable of hosting 10,000 people and a “lunar colony” that would give guests the sensation of actually walking on the moon.

The MOON would sit on a pedestal-like circular building beneath it and would glow at night. Henderson discussed the project at the Arabian Travel Market this month in Dubai.

<p>Michael Henderson discusses his proposal to build a billion moon-shaped resort May 4 at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.</p>

Nick El Haj, Associated Press

Michael Henderson discusses his proposal to build a $5 billion moon-shaped resort May 4 at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Already, artist’s renderings commissioned by Moon World Resorts played with the location for his MOON — including at the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building at a height of 2,710 feet. Others have placed it at the Dubai Pearl, a long-dormant project now being destroyed near the man-made Palm Jumeirah archipelago, and on its unfinished sister, the Palm Jebel Ali.

The Pearl and the Palm Jebel Ali represent two “white elephant” projects left over from the 2009 financial crisis that rocked the sheikhdom and forced Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, to provide Dubai with a $20 billion bailout.

Nearly 15 years later, Dubai largely has turned around. Rents on average across Dubai are up 26.9% year-on-year, even with anti-price-gouging protections. Dubai saw 86,849 residential sales last year, beating a previous record of 80,831 from 2009.

“Dubai is in a completely different world compared to” 2009, said Lewis Allsopp, the CEO of the prominent Dubai real estate agency Allsopp & Allsopp. Launched products are “selling out on the spot.”

Inflation and interest rate hikes around the world have led to fears of a global recession. The UAE’s currency, the dirham, is pegged to the dollar, meaning it has followed the hikes imposed by the Federal Reserve.

But cash still remains king for Dubai buyers, with about 80% of transactions paid in currency without financing in 2022, said Faisal Durrani, the head of Middle East research at real estate agency Knight Frank.

“You could argue that the interest rate hikes that are taking place, to an extent the market is a little bit shielded from that given the fact that so much of the transactional activity has been driven by cash,” Durrani said.

Like other high-profile, eye-catching marvels, the MOON could fit well into “the legitimacy formula of Dubai’s ruling elite,” said Christopher Davidson, a Middle East expert who wrote the recent book “From Sheikhs to Sultanism.”

<p>An artist's rendering shows the billion MOON project envisioned on The Palm Jumeirah island in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.</p>

Moon World Resorts

An artist's rendering shows the $5 billion MOON project envisioned on The Palm Jumeirah island in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Dubai also hosts the UAE’s space center, which has sent a probe to Mars and unsuccessfully tried to put a rover on the moon.

“They can be seen as a non-democratic elite but nonetheless believe strongly in science and progress — and that’s ultimately very legitimizing and a megaproject like this would seem to tick all of those boxes,” Davidson said.

Henderson’s plan would go a step further than other globe-shaped projects, such as the MSG Sphere, a $2.3 billion dome blanketed by LED screens, that is scheduled to open in Las Vegas later this year.

His structure would be fully spherical, and could be illuminated alternatively as a full, half or crescent moon.

The brightness may not go down well with potential neighbors — plans to build another MSG Sphere in London were halted after residents protested the significant light pollution and disruption the structure would cause.

“It’s hard to please everybody,” Henderson acknowledged. “You might need dark curtains.”

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