Atélis at d3

Sold out on the Creekside

Atélis at d3 is a residential tower by Meraas on the Creekside shoreline of Dubai Design District, and the developer marks it sold out on its own project page. Before the release closed, Meraas published a starting price of AED 2.10 M covering one- to four-bedroom apartments, four-bedroom sky villas and five-bedroom penthouses. Nothing remains to reserve at developer level, so a buyer approaching the building today is buying from an existing purchaser at whatever the resale market asks rather than at that launch figure. Wincasa Properties, an authorised sales partner for Meraas, tracks what comes back to the market here and can set current asking prices against the developer's original release.

The tower is the work of SOM, the architecture studio Meraas names on the project page, and its position does most of the work. Meraas describes Atélis as the first waterfront landmark inside the district and promises uninterrupted views of the water alongside a panorama of the Dubai skyline. Apartments occupy the main body of the building, with the sky villas and penthouses taking the upper levels. Floor-plan sheets for each layout stay published by the developer, and that detail earns its keep on a resale purchase: a buyer can study the plan of the exact unit on offer, and where it sits on its plate, before agreeing a price with the seller.

Dubai Design District is a working creative quarter before it is a residential one. Its offices and studios hold design, fashion, art and media businesses, and the district's year turns on design weeks, fashion shows and art fairs rather than on retail alone. Meraas puts d3 at 18 million square feet in its description of Atélis, and the current masterplan layers homes, shops, schools, healthcare and a car-free walking route onto that business base. For an owner, that mix is the letting case: the people who work in the district are the closest tenant pool, and the centre of the city is minutes away — the developer lists Dubai Mall at six minutes by car, Downtown Dubai and City Walk at seven, and DIFC at twelve.

The amenity list Meraas publishes for the building runs to two kinds of pool, cascading and infinity, with sunken seats and cabanas set around them, poolside suites, social lounges, outdoor co-working areas, a fully equipped gym, an entertainment room and a play area for children in the open air. Taken together it describes a building for people whose work and leisure happen in the same postcode, which fits a professional couple in a one- or two-bedroom home more naturally than a large family — although the four-bedroom sky villas and the penthouses exist for buyers who want scale at the top of the stack. The floor a unit sits on, what it looks out at and the service-charge position are the three things worth settling before any offer.