Last orders: Will IMPZ dent or boost Dubai Media City?

For those who consider Dubai Media City (DMC) the ultimate destination for the region’s fourth estate, there’s an alternative on the horizon. The International Media Production Zone (IMPZ) - a specialized mixed-use development catering to the printing, publishing and packaging industries - is almost online near DMC. The new zone, launched in July 2003 around the time DMC started running out of space, is hoping to become a choice alternative for both incoming media firms, and those in DMC looking to expand.

While there will be the usual grab-bag of malls, food courts and the occasional jazz festival livening up the place, IMPZ will have stricter screening processes compared to the DMC’s early days, when firms could get going in a matter of minutes. This time around, IMPZ’s director says the grown-ups are in charge, and there will be greater emphasis on expertise and revenue streams.

Apart from its focus on the printing, publishing and packaging industries, on paper there is not much to separate IMPZ from DMC. Sure, there are subtle variations in terms of services and options (such as plots of land for investors to build their own media production outlets on, and pre-engineered warehouse units housing both offices and showrooms). But the real reason why IMPZ came about, like everything else in Dubai, is the need for more elbowroom.

“From DMC, to Internet City, to Knowledge Village, there has been a need for expansion. Publishers require more land, more space,” says Hamad al-Huraiz, IMPZ’s executive director. “DMC cannot cater to printing, and some [companies] require an entire building.” Because most existing publishing companies already have prime locations in and around DMC, he says, expansion there is difficult and expensive. Bringing yet another free zone to the city was a no-brainer.

OUTSIDE THE BOX.

The new development offered an opportunity to think differently about how to build a free zone. This time, it will be a commercial-residential project, allowing tenants to “work, live and play without having to go to the Mall of the Emirates,” Huraiz says.

Since it’s more in line with the idea of community development, IMPZ expects around 80,000 people to work on its premises once it reaches peak capacity. And some real estate developers have already moved in to reap the dividends. In the first quarter of 2006, Dubai-based ETA Star Properties launched Centrium - a white-collar residential apartment block with community facilities. “The project has been able to attract genuine end-users, most of whom will be employed in IMPZ,” says Abid Junaid, ETA Star’s Executive Director. The company says the project is on schedule to be delivered by the end of 2009. Other residential units, such as Oasis Residential, Amwaj, Terrace Residential and Masaken, are also at various stages of construction.

In January, IMPZ announced it had finished installing 235-million-dirhams ($64 million) worth of infrastructure, spread across a whopping 3.9 million square meters of land - the equivalent of about 500 football pitches. The first of its five electrical substations, which will have a combined capacity of 160 megawatts, has been switched on. (The Zone’s total infrastructure investment is an initial $280 million, with tenants expected to kick in a similar amount.)

Many see IMPZ as no different from Dubai Healthcare City, Dubai Academic City Dubiotech, or any of the emirate’s other major industry-focused, mixed-use projects. Yves-Michel Gabay, the international business and development director at Mediaedge:cia, a communications planning and implementation agency, says zones such as DMC and IMPZ excel at building the ballpark people will come to, without setting the rules of the game. “I don’t see them as a big power giving us dos and don’ts,” he says. “The idea behind DMC is to help media players … get the right playing field.”

They do, however, decide who can play. Though he won’t say it explicitly, Gabay suggests the zone has abandoned its all-encompassing approach, opting instead to put up the velvet ropes. “DMC has learnt from its past experiences,” he says. “They have become more aware and more careful about whom they are dealing with.” There is little reason to think IMPZ will operate any differently.

Part of the reason has to do with how the government now treats media outlets. “‘Free zone’ doesn’t mean you get everything for free,” says Huraiz. “In 2000, you could get a license in 15 minutes. Today it takes time.” Indeed, it can take between 30 and 45 working days for a magazine’s publishing license to be processed, after ping-ponging back and forth between DMC and the National Media Council (NMC).

The current regime isn’t interested in hurrying up the process to get more players onboard. And thanks to its affiliation with the NMC, any company hoping for a home in IMPZ will have to go through a similar grind. Censorship and other regulatory issues will be the domain of both DMC and the NMC, although Huraiz insists IMPZ will be responsible for issuing permits.

CART BEFORE THE HORSE.

A free zone can afford to be fussy about its tenants once it’s established - but IMPZ isn’t there yet. Will prospective startups be willing to subject themselves to the opaque process of being vetted by Huraiz? That’s not the only question facing IMPZ. It took years for DMC to reach a critical mass of tenants. Because of that, most observers don’t see IMPZ as a major competitor.

Take Samer Murad for example. In 2002, he became an account executive with Al Khalijiya, the marketing division of Saudi Research and Publishing Company. Back then he spent most of the day driving to meetings with clients, most of whom were based outside DMC. After witnessing five years of growth in the zone (and moving on to regional sales manager at online business information provider, AME Info), today most of Murad’s clients are within a 10-minute drive. “From half a day then, it takes less than an hour to do a 30-minute meeting now,” he says happily.

For DMC tenants like Murad, Media City works as it was envisioned to: a concentration of media, advertising and PR within easy reach of one another. This is unlikely to change any time soon because a similar cluster is evolving elsewhere in the city.

“I don’t see too many companies moving,” Murad says, unless the space constraints leave them no other option.

First seen at www.trendsmagazine.net