Abdulla Belhoul

The global commercial real estate landscape is undergoing transformation as employees increasingly prioritise qualitative benefits to help them succeed in the innovation economy. Seventy-one per cent of 8,000 global professionals surveyed for Unispace’s Global Workplace Insights 2024-25 report say the workplace enables them to do their best work. Moreover, 76 per cent of 2,700 employers surveyed for the report believe the workplace enables employees to be more innovative, reaffirming the role of offices in promoting creativity and connection.

Employers offering curated corporate community experiences are likelier to attract and retain the world’s most sought-after minds. TECOM Group’s 10 business districts are the nexus of business excellence as this invigorated approach to nurturing innovation translates into robust demand for premium workspaces. Our strategically located hubs, home to more than 11,800 global and regional businesses and 124,000 professionals from the tech, media, design, education, science, and manufacturing sectors, are instrumental in writing Dubai’s diversified economic success story.

This notably includes the burgeoning creative sector, where Dubai Design District (d3) united influential global creatives in 2024 through the official Dubai Fashion Week and Dubai Design Week’s landmark 10th edition, contributing towards the Design Sector Strategy 2033. Dubai Fashion Week is set to once again launch the global fashion calendar in February.d3, in strategic partnership with Dubai Media City, launched the Digital Creative Economy white paper in 2024, outlining the Dhs27tn career-defining opportunities in this rapidly emerging segment by 2030.

We are proactively future-proofing the engines that contribute to diversified economic progress. More than 4,000 businesses, from Fortune 500s to startups, are strengthening our city’s digitally enabled knowledge economy at Dubai Internet City, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this past October. The community of 1,100 businesses and 350 operational factories in Dubai Industrial City also actively contributes to the manufacturing and logistics sectors. Our districts are contributing towards developing skilled talent through academic learning and research innovation. World-leading educationalists at Dubai Knowledge Park and Dubai International Academic City offer innovative courses in transformative sectors, while at Dubai Science Park, more than 500 global life, energy, and environment science leaders are strengthening innovation pathways for emerging talent.

TECOM Group’s long-term growth roadmap requires our portfolio to remain agile in its evolution, particularly as the parameters of collaboration, innovation, and work transform for future generations. Numerous surveys underscore a penchant for entrepreneurship, with a Hubspot survey reporting that 20 per cent of Gen Z workers supplement full-time employment with side businesses or incomes. Flexibility and work-life balance are priorities, and, as tech natives, technological integration is pivotal to effectively engaging them and harnessing their full creative potential. Offerings such as in5, a startup incubator nurturing businesses in design, tech, science and media, and D/Quarters, a flexible and modern coworking space, enable TECOM Group to proactively address emergent demands for flexibility, accessibility and collaboration.

The blueprint of our portfolio demonstrates our purpose-driven strategy to nurture synergies that stimulate globally impactful entrepreneurship from Dubai, contributing to the city’s non-oil growth that is also strengthening the commercial real estate sector’s performance. With new commercial and industrial asset investments of Dhs2.7bn in 2024, including the development of six Grade-A office buildings within Phase 2 of Dubai Design District (d3) and the launch of Grade-A offices at Dubai Internet City with Innovation Hub Phase 3, our portfolio will continue to serve a growing volume of global investors and talent.