Sheikh Zayed and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom inaugurated the hotel in 1979. Courtesy Le Méridien Abu Dhabi
Sheikh Zayed and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom inaugurated the hotel in 1979. Courtesy Le Méridien Abu Dhabi

A landmark in 35 years of change



A specially invited group of royalty, VIPs, and long-standing staff members will gather for a gala reception at Le Meridien Abu Dhabi this evening to celebrate the hotel’s anniversary, 35 years to the day after its inauguration by the late Sheikh Zayed and the United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth.

It is an anniversary nobody expected to celebrate, a party that everybody expected to be a wake. As recently as 2011, Le Meridien was still scheduled for demolition as part of plans to build new road bridges between Al Maryah Island, the capital’s new central business district, and Al Zahiyah, the area formerly known as Tourist Club.

The plans represented the death knell for one of the capital’s best-known landmarks. “From 2005, there’s been ongoing talk of this hotel being demolished,” says Nemo Acimovic, Le Meridien’s general manager. “When I took over in 2010, I was given nine months to hand it over for demolition because bridge number three, from Al Maryah Island, was meant to come right through the lobby here and connect to Electra Street.”

The marina precinct next to the hotel is being demolished and Hamdan Street has been extended to make way for the new bridges, two of 13 that will eventually link Al Maryah with its neighbours. However, thanks to an agreement between Le Meridien’s owner, Abu Dhabi National Hotels, the Urban Planning Council and Abu Dhabi Municipality, the hotel will remain as the focal point between the bridges that will eventually cross from Al Maryah on a new, adjusted alignment.

A look at any satellite image of the area reveals the remarkable nature of Le Meridien’s escape. The hotel sits across the path of Sheikh Zayed the First Street, or Electra Street, and extensive ramps were built – behind Le Meridien and across the water on Al Maryah – to allow construction of the new bridge to begin. Even as late as 2011, Le Meridien’s fate seemed certain.

“Investment had stopped a year or two before, the age of the property was showing and morale was very low,” Mr Acimovic says, “but just before August 2011 the works stopped in their tracks, the machinery moved away and from that point, there was no more talk about the demolition of the hotel.

“Our task from 2011 until now has been to secure reinvestment, to regain the confidence of the market, and to tell everybody that we are back and that we’re a force to be reckoned with.”

This evening’s gala event represents the latest chapter in Le Meridien’s great escape. Not only will it act as the launch of an exhibition, A Journey Through 35 Years, in which photographs from the hotel’s archive will be put on public display, but Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, the Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development, will unveil a plaque commemorating the anniversary while adding his signature to the hotel’s guest book, the Livre d’Or.

Even more than the hotel’s photographs – which capture its inauguration as well as visits by foreign dignitaries such as the British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, King Juan Carlos I of Spain and even Muammar Qaddafi of Libya – the signatures in the Livre d’Or encapsulate the changing role the hotel has played in the fortunes of the city.

The agreement between Le Meridien and Abu Dhabi National Hotels was signed in 1975 at a time when the Hilton was the only international hotel operating in the city. With the city’s marina on one side and the original Tourist Club on the other, Le Meridien stood at the heart of Abu Dhabi’s earliest leisure complex with its pool, tennis courts, restaurant and beach.

Air France had established the brand in 1972 “to provide a home from home” for its passengers and aircrew. The first Le Meridien hotel was the 1,000-room Le Meridien Etoile in Paris, but within two years the group had 10 hotels in Europe and Africa and by 1978 there were 21 worldwide.

The Abu Dhabi hotel was planned as part of this second wave of expansion but its opening was delayed thanks to lobbying by local cement manufacturers who saw the hotel’s steel-framed construction – the first of its type in the capital – as a potential challenge to their livelihoods.

By February 1979, however, the hotel was ready, just in time for its inauguration by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who arrived in Abu Dhabi on board the royal yacht Britannia as part of a wider tour of the Arabian Gulf. The visit, less than a month after the outbreak of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, attracted the attention of the world’s media, all of whom were in the capital to see the queen received by Sheikh Zayed and the six rulers of the other emirates. The following month, Sheikh Zayed returned with the president of France, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, the French ambassador and the secretary general of Air France for the hotel’s official opening at a rather lower-key event.

All of these events are captured in the Livre d’Or, as are the many visits in the early 1980s by French and francophone dignitaries and celebrities such as Abdou Diouf, the president of Senegal, Prince Albert of Belgium, the leaders of Tunisia and Morocco and the singer Sacha Distel.

It is a period in Le Meridien Abu Dhabi’s history that is remembered fondly by Sainalabadeen Saliabee, from Trivandrum in Kerala, the hotel’s longest-serving employee.

Mr Saliabee, or Zain as he is known to his colleagues, arrived in Dubai in 1976 to work as a storeman for a dredging company in Jebel Ali and started at Le Meridien Abu Dhabi as a driver in October 1982. He now supervises the hotel’s car team.

“I was 25 when I started working here and the only five-star hotels in Abu Dhabi were Le Meridien, the Sheraton, the InterContinental and the Hilton. I am 58 now, that’s my whole working life.

Mr Saliabee’s first job was to drive aircrew and guests to and from Abu Dhabi airport when it was still at Al Bateen.

“It was a very busy time for the hotel with aircrew, lots of ministers came, especially from France. Our head office was in Paris and the airlines were the backbone of the hotel. We had crews from Air France, Egypt Air, Garuda – the Indonesian airline – and even Air China.”

If the hotel’s clientele was very different in the 1980s, so too was the surrounding area.

“This area was a posh area at the time. There was the Tourist Club on one side, the marina on the other and when you looked from the back of the hotel there was only the sea. There were no buildings anywhere and if you wanted to cross to Saadiyat Island you had to take a boat.”

As Mr Saliabee and his boss, Mr Acimovic, admit, Abu Dhabi’s skyline is not the only thing to have changed. Le Meridien Abu Dhabi is no longer a five-star hotel, newer venues now play host to the capital’s visiting politicians and VIPs and guests are just as likely to come from Russia and China as from France. The changes, however, have not deterred the hotel’s regular customers.

“We have some guests who have been coming to Abu Dhabi for 30 years and whenever I see their faces, I remember their names. They are always surprised, but they are very happy,” Mr Saliabee says.

To capitalise on the hotel’s new lease of life, Mr Acimovic has plans for even more changes.

“This year we have budgeted for renovation of the rooms, the lobby and the all-day dining area. Nothing major will change – the idea is to maintain the feel and the soul of the place – but it will be renovated in a way that is acceptable to Le Meridien as a brand to make it look fresh while maintaining the charm.”

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The specs: Lamborghini Aventador SVJ

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Our legal columnist

Name: Yousef Al Bahar

Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994

Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers

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Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors

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Transmission: Single-speed automatic

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T20 WORLD CUP 

2024: US and West Indies; 2026: India and Sri Lanka; 2028: Australia and New Zealand; 2030: England, Ireland and Scotland 

ODI WORLD CUP 

2027: South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia; 2031: India and
Bangladesh 

CHAMPIONS TROPHY 

2025: Pakistan; 2029: India  

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Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
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A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
  • 2018: Formal work begins
  • November 2021: First 17 volumes launched 
  • November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
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  • November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
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The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE. 

Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative 

How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

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Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
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yallacompare profile

Date of launch: 2014

Founder: Jon Richards, founder and chief executive; Samer Chebab, co-founder and chief operating officer, and Jonathan Rawlings, co-founder and chief financial officer

Based: Media City, Dubai 

Sector: Financial services

Size: 120 employees

Investors: 2014: $500,000 in a seed round led by Mulverhill Associates; 2015: $3m in Series A funding led by STC Ventures (managed by Iris Capital), Wamda and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority; 2019: $8m in Series B funding with the same investors as Series A along with Precinct Partners, Saned and Argo Ventures (the VC arm of multinational insurer Argo Group)

The Book of Collateral Damage

Sinan Antoon

(Yale University Press)

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Day 3, Dubai Test: At a glance

Moment of the day Lahiru Gamage, the Sri Lanka pace bowler, has had to play a lot of cricket to earn a shot at the top level. The 29-year-old debutant first played a first-class game 11 years ago. His first Test wicket was one to savour, bowling Pakistan opener Shan Masood through the gate. It set the rot in motion for Pakistan’s batting.

Stat of the day – 73 Haris Sohail took 73 balls to hit a boundary. Which is a peculiar quirk, given the aggressive intent he showed from the off. Pakistan’s batsmen were implored to attack Rangana Herath after their implosion against his left-arm spin in Abu Dhabi. Haris did his best to oblige, smacking the second ball he faced for a huge straight six.

The verdict One year ago, when Pakistan played their first day-night Test at this ground, they held a 222-run lead over West Indies on first innings. The away side still pushed their hosts relatively close on the final night. With the opposite almost exactly the case this time around, Pakistan still have to hope they can salvage a win from somewhere.

Emirates Cricket Board Women’s T10

ECB Hawks v ECB Falcons

Monday, April 6, 7.30pm, Sharjah Cricket Stadium

The match will be broadcast live on the My Sports Eye Facebook page

 

Hawks

Coach: Chaitrali Kalgutkar

Squad: Chaya Mughal (captain), Archara Supriya, Chamani Senevirathne, Chathurika Anand, Geethika Jyothis, Indhuja Nandakumar, Kashish Loungani, Khushi Sharma, Khushi Tanwar, Rinitha Rajith, Siddhi Pagarani, Siya Gokhale, Subha Srinivasan, Suraksha Kotte, Theertha Satish

 

Falcons

Coach: Najeeb Amar

Squad: Kavisha Kumari (captain), Almaseera Jahangir, Annika Shivpuri, Archisha Mukherjee, Judit Cleetus, Ishani Senavirathne, Lavanya Keny, Mahika Gaur, Malavika Unnithan, Rishitha Rajith, Rithika Rajith, Samaira Dharnidharka, Shashini Kaluarachchi, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi, Vaishnave Mahesh

 

 

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Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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