#UNDER C: THE CUBE, 24F Res (Sports City)

[jimbo5]

ManRed you are right, we definitely need to be together on this one.

Here is a news article

Existing customers of Mada’in Properties will receive revised contracts with the purchase price of their properties discounted up to 30 percent, the developer said on Wednesday 4th March 2009.

“We have studied the market conditions and have formulated a strategy that deals with the past, the present and the future. Bearing this in mind, we have made the decision to assist our customers in their investments, not only in good times, but also in the current market conditions,” Abdul Aziz Al Awar, CEO of Mada’in Properties said.

“The construction costs have been reduced significantly allowing us to pass on the savings to our current customers,” he added.

In February, Dubai-based developer, Deyaar also announced it would reduce the price of properties bought during the real estate boom.

If these Developers can reduce prices so should BMG. Quite a lot of investors have paid 50% up front. We have suffered delay after delay, 8 week revision on payment plans for people on installment plans does not help us. Our money is tied up when it should have been making money for us by now. We need to demand that BMG give us investors the reductions that are due !

[cube127]

I brought an apartment in 2006, been waiting ever since. I agree we need to stick together. BMG have made a lot of broken promises to date. If they're getting a reduced build cost, then we should also get some of those saving. I’m also not convinced by the 5 -6 weeks delay either. What happens when that becomes 5 - 6 months.

[baba toto]

Originally Posted by cube127

I brought an apartment in 2006, been waiting ever since. I agree we need to stick together. BMG have made a lot of broken promises to date. If they're getting a reduced build cost, then we should also get some of those saving. I’m also not convinced by the 5 -6 weeks delay either. What happens when that becomes 5 - 6 months.

I too bought in 2006 and believe that we should stick together to seek our best interests..

[ManRed]

Jimbo that is very interesting information you have posted. I also read such reports on ameinfo.com. This information does need to be brought to BMG’s attention. Hopefully they will pay heed if they have a conscience. It is now the weekend in Dubai so gaining some information is going to prove difficult. My suggestions to all investors are contact BMG with you worries and concerns. Mention completion dates, who the new contractors will be, savings on construction costs and whether these will be passed on to investors, compensation payouts, false information that was fed to us previously, what the action plan for BMG is now and many other issues that you can think of.

BMG need to understand how we feel and that we are not idiots. I also purchased in 2006 so all these delays are literally becoming a joke. I do not see this as a positive due to being able to pay the remaining owed later but rather a year without rental income. Therefore a loss!!!

After we get some information from BMG we will understand what position we are in and what actions we need to take next. If anyone else has any suggestions on how we can strengthen our position as investors please add these on.

[rsuleman]

i agree with you guys. lets try and find out what is going on by asking these questions. This way we know what we can do next. lets see what happens by next week but whatever happens we need to stick together.

[Diaz08]

Anyone able to upload recent pics of the project in particular the quality issues?

Good luck - remember, 'Strength in Unity'

[cube127]

Few questions and answers I got from BMG :-

How long has building work been stopped for to date because of this issue ? Sungwon was issued with a suspension perhaps two weeks ago while the third party inspection was undertaken, BMG then awaited the report and then the decision to terminate Sungwon occurred in the last couple of days.

Does the problem affect all 4 basement floors ?
I have not seen the report myself and I am trying to find out if the report in part or in full can be released to our purchases. When I have been on site even I could see (with my zero knowledge of construction) that what were supposed to be exposed concrete surfaces such as the floor of basement four were rough and uneven and would have to fixed.

How long will the remedial work take ?
Remedial works will be carried out at the same time construction re-starts.

Will there be a new building contractor in place in 5 – 6 weeks ?
Yes or all activities will be undertaken by BMG, either way 5- 6 weeks and construction will have re-started. Some of the optimists in the construction team are hoping for 3 – 4 weeks.

[Ischrat]

I guess everyone understand that BMG is trying to cut the cost and keep the benefit in their pocket.

It's important that we all get together, but it's not easy, as mnay of us are investors from outside Dubai, it seems. We need to find somebody in Dubai who act on behalf of all of us for getting a resonable discount from BMG, as the project is definitely going to get delayed at least by six months. We also don't know who they have hired to run it as a hotel and genreate the required return that they so-called guranteed. Does anybody know?

I have aslo received the letter from BMG, with the same rediculous offer of delay in my last instalment to them by eight weeks.

I am for making a joint effort but we need a leader in Dubai!!

[rsuleman]

I had an email conversation last week with one of BMG's senir directors. He was telling me about other developers passing construction costs on to customers was not how it seemed. He talked about BMG keepin their promise and building something with quality. He talked about how they introduced the MedSpa and the LowOxygen System. All these “upgrades” in the building where only done with one purpose in mind: Maximizing returns for our investors in the long run and that is what we are still focussing on.

He did not tell me about who was now going to be carrying out construction and did not even get into the conversation about compensation.

Anyone have any updates?

[Tag_one]

Got an update. Although work on the site has been halted for some weeks, there some very good news. BMG has selected a manufacturer for the windows of the cube. Here are some images of how your balcony windows are going to look:

Overall look:


The hot dessert sun being reflected by the windows:


The sliding door from the inside:


And from the outside:


And a close up of the glass.

For the non engineers: the window has two layers of glass separated by a space filled with a special gas. This will reduce the transmission of heat though the glass. The glass is also coated with metal and silver to keep hot dessert sun out of your apartment.
This will keep your chiller fee low



edit: pictures are from the BMG website

[ManRed]

Wouldnt it be nice to have a building they could fit these windows to? Anyone have any further updates on the cube maybe in regards to compensation? Anyone going out there soon?

[Granty666]

In my recent mail to BMG (similar content, to my post of last week) I have suggested/requested the following:

That a monthly investors report be issued (by e-mail strictly to investors), in place of the glossy (advertising) magazine currently produced.
It should as a minimum contain:
S-curves or some other form of graphical representation of the schedule at resumption of works (fixed baseline - planned) and the actual progress against this. Possibly developing into a floor by floor breakdown (structurally complete / windows fitted / 1st fit /2nd fit / decoration commenced/finished)
A milestone schedule ( key dates )
A 4 week lookahead, summary of works to be done in the next reporting period.
General point of note: Contract bids, operators award, milestones etc. (similar to news of window contract being let, production of 1st/100th/... bathroom module, Arno kitchens 1st 200 being shipped. This report should be supported by progress photographs and the web cam (resume feed, as soon as works recommence.)

Perhaps one of us, has experience of planning/scheduling and could propose, a formalised list of points that we'd like to see in the report, It shouldn't be too extensive, should fall out of BMG's own project planning software easily (primavera, artemis or other) and be pretty easy to understand, not all people have contruction experience. (we could always publish an "understanding the investors report" guide) on this forum.

I believe, if we all formally request the setting up of an Investors Report (by e-mail or letter) then, we may force them to set this level of reporting up, to the benefit of us all.

Strength in unity

[jimbo5]

Originally Posted by Granty666

In my recent mail to BMG (similar content, to my post of last week) I have suggested/requested the following:

That a monthly investors report be issued (by e-mail strictly to investors), in place of the glossy (advertising) magazine currently produced.
It should as a minimum contain:
S-curves or some other form of graphical representation of the schedule at resumption of works (fixed baseline - planned) and the actual progress against this. Possibly developing into a floor by floor breakdown (structurally complete / windows fitted / 1st fit /2nd fit / decoration commenced/finished)
A milestone schedule ( key dates )
A 4 week lookahead, summary of works to be done in the next reporting period.
General point of note: Contract bids, operators award, milestones etc. (similar to news of window contract being let, production of 1st/100th/... bathroom module, Arno kitchens 1st 200 being shipped. This report should be supported by progress photographs and the web cam (resume feed, as soon as works recommence.)

Perhaps one of us, has experience of planning/scheduling and could propose, a formalised list of points that we'd like to see in the report, It shouldn't be too extensive, should fall out of BMG's own project planning software easily (primavera, artemis or other) and be pretty easy to understand, not all people have contruction experience. (we could always publish an "understanding the investors report" guide) on this forum.

I believe, if we all formally request the setting up of an Investors Report (by e-mail or letter) then, we may force them to set this level of reporting up, to the benefit of us all.

Strength in unity

Granty I totally agree with you, this is a very good idea. This would most certainly give us much more information then the current BMG mailshot. Tag_One you seem pretty clued up on construction have you got any ideas for formalising a list of points that should be covered ?

[cube127]

Good idea.

[Granty666]

Extract of BMG response to my mail sent earlier today to BMG Customer Services
(content similar to my post above).

"In regards to the report, the findings contained within it are confidential as per the Main Contractor Agreement. We have asked for a release from Sungwon to be able to provide at least a summary of the report, but there has been no response yet.
We will be reporting to all investors again once we have some definitive dates/names etc and your concerns/questions will be addressed in that report.
In regards to your suggestion regarding Investor Reports, we will consider your comments, however, please consider that 99% of our purchasers are not in construction and prefer our style of report. We have always received a terrific response from our Update’s which is why we continue to present them in that manner. Some investors have requested to receive multiple copies of the Update so they can give them to friends and family.
Undoubtedly you have seen some recent images of Dubai Sports City and noted that much of the project is behind schedule and is generally one large construction site. Therefore I am not sure that The Cube would have been able to generate any income for investors at this time. I am not trying to say that the delays in construction have been immaterial or irrelevant, of course they are but I would just ask that you keep this fact in perspective when considering any “lost income”. (this is my own opinion)
Sincerely
Nathan Bromley"

[Granty666]

My response to Nathan

I agree that everyone is probably very happy with the glossy 'Update' and I have no problems in them continuing to be produced in that manner. All I would say is, that the inclusion of the items suggested, should not pose a problem for yourselves (should be easily obtained from your internal planning/reporting tools) and for those investors that are not technically minded or uninterested, those details could be ignored.
However, the provision of simple project S-curve(s) milestones, points of note etc. if published would be welcomed by most, if not all.
Just because they are unaware such things exist, should not prevent BMG from educating them to the fact that they do (can be very useful - ignorance is not bliss).
My suggestion was that 'the Investor Report', if implemented (e-mail or simple plain paper format) would be strictly published for those persons, who have purchased a property, (ie not for the public domain).
I have posted my thoughts on a "Cube forum" to other enlightened investors in the project, as I believe "only Mushrooms and Photophobics should be kept in the dark"

[ManRed]

I am going to Dubai on in May where i will meet representatives from BMG. Hopefully i will try and get as much information as possible. I will be taking forward peoples concerns and try and push for compensation.

Just off the record does anyone know how i can arrange for one of these drivers that take you around everywhere. They are normally cheaper than taxis if you use them for a few days. I seem to have lost the details of one that i used to use.

[jimbo5]

Originally Posted by ManRed

I am going to Dubai on in May where i will meet representatives from BMG. Hopefully i will try and get as much information as possible. I will be taking forward peoples concerns and try and push for compensation.

Just off the record does anyone know how i can arrange for one of these drivers that take you around everywhere. They are normally cheaper than taxis if you use them for a few days. I seem to have lost the details of one that i used to use.

ManRed good luck, I hope you are able to push for compensation. I think they are pretty keen in keeping the money. I have seen emails flying around from the Hendrik saying that they are trying to keep momentum going and how they are providing value added services which were not included in the original plan. Apparently, Deyaar CEO is his friend and the price reductions they are making are not how it seems. What he fails to mention is the actual fall in construction costs which they are not wanting to pass on to us (the investor)

I think the First Group free rides to sports city (showing you there developements) and you have to go back and listen to their spiel.

[ManRed]

Thanks for that Jimbo. What i meant was instead of getting normal taxis to get around you can get these private type taxis. The guy normally takes you around everywhere and even sorts you with excursions at very good prices and things like that. We were reccomended one last time i went. The guy was great, however ive lost his details now.

[cube127]

Heres what happened to hockey :-
http://www.gulfnews.com/sport/Hockey/10297764.html

Some good news
http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/UAE/242410