The massive translucent cones sliding down the sides of the Guggenheim museum in Abu Dhabi are finally visible to passersby whizzing through the city’s highway. It’s set to be about 12 times the size of its New York counterpart. Nearby, soaring metal structures resembling falcon wings sit atop the roof of the new Zayed National Museum, just miles from an upcoming natural history museum and a branch of the Louvre that opened in 2017.
All around, there are growing signs of a massive construction boom that’s changing the face of this once sleepy, oil-rich emirate, which holds about 6% of the world’s crude reserves under its sands and controls $1.5 trillion in sovereign wealth. Sprawling theme parks, five-star hotels, luxury homes, sports complexes and high-end office towers are rising at breakneck speed as the city’s rulers spend billions to diversify the economy and cater to global financial giants like Brevan Howard Asset Management and Greg Coffey’s Kirkoswald Asset Management, who’ve set up here.
(Join our ETNRI WhatsApp channel for all the latest updates) The Guggenheim is part of a more than $10 billion push to boost tourism and cultural activity in the emirate, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Meantime, Abu Dhabi is also pouring billions more into building sprawling residential developments to attract rich expatriates to live and work here. Wealthy buyers from the UK, India, Spain and beyond are snapping up seaside villas costing millions.
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