First townhouse and golf community in KAECAn artist's conception of Esmeralda Suburb, the first townhouse and golf community in King Abdullah Economic City, launched by Emaar.E.C on Monday. A fully-integrated neighborhood with schools, retail centers, health & fitness facilities and leisure amenities including an international golf resort, Esmeralda Suburb townhouses will be launched on Wednesday (today) at an event to be held at Hilton Jeddah and Emaar.E.C's Riyadh Sales Center. – SGEclipse Tower features revolutionary concept DUBAI - AAA Appraisers, the approved development arm of the AAA International Group, has announced the prelaunch of The Eclipse Tower, a $200 million commercial tower in Jumeirah Village. Positioned as a very high-end property development, the commercial tower is located at a prime location right of the Al-Khail road entrance into Jumeirah Village. It will have a gross builtup area of 350,000 sq feet with a judicious mix of retail space of 55,000 sq feet. The Eclipse Tower will incorporate the concept of a 9- hole Sky Golf Course as an integrated part of the high rise development. Yousef Yaqoub, general manager, AAA, said, “this is a record of sorts as Dubai, has never experienced a Sky Golf Course. Located on the podium of the building, 4 levels above the ground, the course will feature bunkers, water hazards, as well as a pioneering water management system which maintains the golf course with minimal wastage of water.” “Most towers have facilities like gym and sauna which in reality are never used. The golf course will enable the residents of the building to conduct business while playing golf as well having informal business lunches while walking the greens.” For the first time in Dubai, AAA offers its investors, the chance to move into a fully furnished office, the moment they purchase an office at the Eclipse Tower. Commenting on this pioneering concept in real estate development and sales, Yousef said.” Most businesses have to wait for more than two to three years for hand over of the keys to their office. We aim to introduce a paradigm shift in the real estate industry, by offering our investors the chance to move into new fully-furnished offices immediately” Every investor will get 3 years use of a fully- furnished office at the “ready- to-move-in” Galleries Towers at Jebel Ali Downtown, owned and managed by Limitless, along with a trade license and an investor visa for every office. “The sales of this tower will be launched within the next couple of months at the rate of AED1,600 per sq foot. We expect 50 percent of the building to be sold out in the pre-launch phase. The pre-launch prices are expected to rise by 15 percent on launch,” he added. Construction on this exclusive development will start by end of September 2008 and is projected to be handed over by end of 2010. Commercialbank taps Postilion POS solution DUBAI - Postilion, a leading provider of software solutions for self-service banking and payments and a division of S1 Corporation said on Monday that Commercialbank, one of the largest merchant acquirers in Qatar, has chosen Postilion to deliver innovative payment services to its retail merchant clients. This implementation will make the bank the first organization in Qatar to offer flexible integrated point-of-sale (POS) payment services to merchants, enabling faster service and greater accuracy at checkout. The Postilion solution enables the bank to offer integrated POS payment systems to its merchant clients due to a clear separation between payment and retail functionality. It improves security and transaction times by removing the need for dual entry of the transaction amount and by utilizing fast communication lines. The Postilion solution's features, such as centralized configuration control and consolidated management information, also help simplify retail store operations and end-of-day transaction reconciliation. “We originally wanted to offer integrated POS as an extension of our current merchant acquiring services, but we quickly realized that this was not possible with our existing system. We decided to take a new systems approach in order to support the payment needs of our largest merchants,” said Julian Phillips, manager, Acquiring, Commercialbank. “We chose Postilion because this solution will allow us to offer new services to our merchant clients, as well as improve the overall consumer experience at the point of sale. We believe the innovations inherent in the Postilion solution will distinguish our services from those of our competitors and will attract new merchant business to the bank.” Bruce Butler, executive general manager and chief consumer banking officer for Commercialbank, added, “Postilion's open systems technology means that we can create new value-added services and roll these out to our merchant clients in a short time frame. With Postilion, we will be able to easily control all of our operations across our integrated POS estate from one central place.” Saab Turbo X ready for takeoff JEDDAH - Saab has announced that the new, distinctively styled Turbo X model will go on sale in the Middle East this June. Interested buyers will have to move quickly as the Turbo X, which is the first vehicle to offer the state-of-the-art XWD all-wheel-drive system, will only be available in very limited numbers in the region. Giving the driver optimum handling, stability and grip in all driving conditions, the Limited Edition Saab Turbo X is equipped with the XWD (cross wheel drive) system. This intelligent active all-wheel-drive system continuously distributes torque from the award-winning 2.8-litre turbocharged V6 engine between the front and rear axles and also between the rear wheels. To optimize traction at take-off, Saab XWD incorporates an innovative pre-emptive engagement of the rear wheels. Unlike conventional all-wheel-drive systems, this eliminates the need to detect front wheel slip before rear drive is activated, contributing to a system which Saab believes sets a new benchmark in all-wheel-drive performance. Offering sure-footed handling in low-grip conditions, Turbo X also boasts the addition of an active rear limited-slip differential (eLSD) as standard. The eLSD can transfer up to 50 percent of maximum rear torque between the rear wheels, to whichever has more grip. __
