Why Dubai Has $14 Billion Empty Man-Made Islands

[Music] dubai is a land full of technology innovation and in the case of the world islands severe disappointment not long ago dubai's world islands were the talk of the town nothing quite like them had ever been constructed so it's no wonder that they wound up as the poster child for nearly every tourism advertisement imaginable but after the city funneled a staggering 14 billion dollars into their development the iconic landmark sat forgotten and abandoned slowly being overrun by mother nature so what happened where did it all go wrong and is there any hope left for this dubai icon let's find out we have to wind the clock back all the way to 2003 for the start of this fascinating journey of let's be honest failure but back then the world islands were a totally different story the designers were full of optimism and the rest of the planet was obsessing over this beacon of ingenuity here was the initial plan the artificial archipelago made up of 300 islands was going to be built two miles off the coast of the mainland it was going to be a typical residential neighborhood though the world islands were intended to be an exclusive offshore playground for the elite of the elite we're talking local and international film stars royalty business tycoons and celebrities from near and far 50 invitations were sent out every year detailing the exclusive opportunity to own the world if you were swimming in cash wouldn't you jump at the chance and if celebrities weren't buying they were being dragged into the advertising richard branson posed for photos on little britain in a union jack suit while rumors swirled that brad pitt and angelina jolie had purchased ethiopia in line with the birthplace of their first adopted child zahara the smaller islands were being advertised for 15 million dollars all the way up to 50 million for the larger ones not cheap by the way why such high prices for empty islands it's because a lot of work went into their construction clearly these weren't naturally formed structures these world-shaped islands were man-made and building them up from scratch was a mighty ordeal all up a whopping 321 million cubic meters of sand needed to be brought in just to put that in perspective imagine yankee stadium filled from bottom to top with sand now multiply that by about 150 and there's your visual impressive right that doesn't even include the 34 billion tons of large rocks either the sand was distributed across 300 islands over the course of five years with one for almost every country in the world ranging in size from 5 to 20 acres and with up to 330 feet of water separating each island the total area encompassed just over 20 square miles of land okay let's talk about money ready for this all things considered this wasted project cost the city of dubai a tear-jerking 14 billion dollars if instead of building the world islands the city put their money toward other avenues the opportunities would have been endless and dubai could have been even further propelled into the global spotlight but no for 14 billion dubai could have built another nine identical copies of the world's tallest building the burj khalifa for 14 billion dubai could have constructed 225 replicas of the dubai frame almost enough to create a circumference around the entire city for 14 billion dubai could have constructed another 13 versions of the burj allah arab the world's only 7 star hotel perhaps most importantly for 14 billion bucks dubai could have created a second version of the palm jumura a revolutionary man-made archipelago that was already proven to be astoundingly successful yet despite all these imaginative and realistic possibilities they took the wrong option opting to build the world islands which have sat mostly abandoned since their inception slowly falling victim to the ocean the empty islands aren't a failure solely because of the unwise allocation of the city's cash while initially an amazing visual spectacle that truly deserved to be on a postcard the aesthetic of the world islands is now well kind of sad really see for yourself the hope was for the world island to resemble a bird's eye view of a world map however in reality and to the disappointment of the city and the structure's developers the archipelago turned out to be only vaguely recognizable at best we're central america practically non-existent and is that supposed to be australia even continents have blurred together europe africa and asia have merged into well an indistinguishable blob of sand but how did it get to this point part of the blame goes towards sinking and erosion and the other part goes toward the project remaining unfinished primary cause for the lack of completion can be pinned down to one event the gfc because of the destructive effects of 2008 nikhil properties the developer had to halt production in 2009 by then amazingly 60 percent of the islands had already been sold to private companies and investors but after that point mother nature started to take over and the islands began to lose their well-defined borders while the gfc was indeed the catalyst for failure it wasn't alone the islands had also no access to electricity which given its intention to house properties was a huge issue there was a plan in place to install electric cables under the persian gulf however it was never carried out then we've got another important reason for their struggle the dilemma of choice dubai already has another incredibly successful man-made archipelago the 12 million dollar palm tree officially known as palm jumeirah this structure welcomed its first residence in 2007 before the world islands hit the roadblock as you can see today this place is thriving the atlantis hotel is a hot spot for celebrities with its lavish atlantis bridge suite holding the distinction of being one of the most expensive hotel suites in the world zeroing in at 25 000 a night properties are going up left right and center and it's still far from being full so with another perfectly good set of islands already flourishing why would dubai keep throwing money at something seemingly destined to fail in a city constantly building and creating innovative landmarks time and money appeared to be better spent elsewhere only nine of the 300 islands have been developed these ones lebanon island pete's island and six islands making up the so-called heart of europe resort and michael schumacher island yep named after the formula one driver as for africa asia australia and south america well they're still just piles of sand slowly drifting away alas hope is not entirely lost dubai is fully aware of their failure and has managed to pivot in a new direction now the focus has turned almost exclusively to one section of the world map the heart of europe here's the new plan the first phase of construction includes 10 waterfront palaces on sweden island 32 villas on germany island and 78 so-called floating seahorses these floating homes which are intended to be a staycation destination are arguably the most unique part of the entire operation they allow visitors to marvel at marine life from their underwater bedrooms and bathrooms pretty cool hey phase two of the heart of europe features a pair of holiday resorts inspired by the colors and lifestyles of portofino in italy and the cochizuru in france even though the city is making a clear and conscious effort to salvage the monumental stuff up it's fair to say that the rest of the planet and dubai itself has almost forgotten about the world islands to the relief of the developer why because dubai's constant innovations are eclipsing a long forgotten failure these days the first thing that comes to mind is the burst khalifa in a few years that too could change with a number of revolutionary projects already underway before too long we'll see dubai unveil the world's first dynamic tower a 1.2 billion dollar fully rotating skyscraper that will soar 80 stories and nearly 1400 feet into the air we'll also see aladdin city a 500 million dollar neighborhood inspired by the tales of aladdin and the arabian knights and as perhaps the nail in the coffin of the world islands dubai has already created another man-made archipelago jumeirah bay island which is shaped like a seahorse already open to the public this place houses a yacht club apartment buildings and a five-star bulgari hotel would you live on one of the dubai islands if given the chance let us know in the comments down below don't forget to like this video subscribe to the richest and have a great day catch you next time

Channel: TheRichest

Views: 3,117,678

Keywords: the richest, dubai UAE, palm islands, world islands, most expensive, dubai landmarks, how much, expensive island, private islands, dubai billionaires, dubai millionaires, dubai tech, europe islands, burj khalifa, dubai frame, lost money, biggest fails, fail dubai

Id: iz7SMpT-rBk

Length: 8min 2sec (482 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 30 2020