Palm Jebel Ali is an artificialarchipelago in Dubai, United Arab Emirates which began construction in October 2002, was originally planned to be completed by mid-2008 and has been on hold since. Creative Kingdom provided master planning services for the island and Leisure Quest International developed entertainment and attraction concepts. The project, which is 50 percent larger than Palm Jumeirah, is proposed to include six marinas, a water theme park, 'Sea Village', homes built on stilts above the water, and boardwalks that circle the "fronds" of the "palm" and spell out an Arabic poem by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The breakwater was completed in December 2006, and infrastructure work began in April 2007. Major construction will not begin until most of the infrastructure work is complete. Following the financial crisis of 2008 work has been suspended and the developers, Nakheel, have confirmed no work would take place on the development in the near future. Nakheel invited several architects to design one of the buildings for the Palm on a 300,000 m2 area. The winning design was a building by Royal Haskoning, who also worked on several other projects in Dubai. The residential villas to be built and sold by the developer were designed by Serendipity By Design LLC, a firm based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The villa types were to be categorised by size and style; 40 series, garden villas and signature villas. In the first signs of a slowing Dubai property market, the prices of properties being sold on Palm Jebel Ali were reported to have fallen by 40% in the two months to November 2008, with the fall being attributed to the Financial crisis of 2007–2010. In March 2011 Nakheel offered refunds to property investors. Palm Jebel Ali's developer planned to house more than 250,000 people on it. In the original schedule, by 2021, the first phase of four theme parks would have opened on the Crescent. These planned parks, which together will be called "World of Discovery," will be developed and operated by the Busch Entertainment Corporation. The parks include SeaWorld, Aquatica, Busch Gardens and Discovery Cove. The World of Discovery will be located at the top of the Crescent, which will form into the shape of an orca. In November 2014, 74 owners on Palm Jebel Ali wrote to the Ruler of Dubai via the Ruler's Court regarding the stalled PJA project. On 16 March 2015, Nakheel Chairman Mr Ali Lootah confirmed that Nakheel remains committed to the project long term but asked "what can I do" for original investors. In October 2018, Sanjay Manchanda, CEO of Nakheel, confirmed that there are no immediate plans to restart development of the project.
