Is your office building five-star?

Makateb Holding, a new company which launched in Dubai today, is planning to provide services for office buildings to increase and improve the work environment in them.

In other words- provide gyms, pools, coffee shops, libraries and business centers, so that employees can feel pampered and employers can get more work out of them. Makateb says that it will enter into joint ventures with multinational and well-established local companies to provide the facilities.

Makateb also plans to offer a rating system for office buildings on a scale of 1- 5; which means an office property with the best facilities will be awarded five stars, and the one with the least facilities only one star. The rating will be based on several factors including energy usage, services offered and quality assurance.

While the rating system may prove attractive, Makateb will have to build a brand name recognition for it to gain value. Executives say that they are currently in talks with the government to gain support from them. If that happens, they hope that their credibility will increase.

Makateb’s plan does sound all promising (the press release says that there are more than 10,000 new projects in the region expected to be completed within the next ten years), but the fact still remains that we are going through a global financial crisis, and companies are unlikely to spend money on facilities for their employees to enjoy.

The company heads, however, strongly believe that better times are coming, and add that they have already begun to get interest from several developers. Makateb’s chairman, Hisham Mosaad Abdel Ghani said that they even have three contracts in the bag, though he wouldn’t reveal any details.

Meanwhile, if you’re working in Thuraya II in Dubai Media City (where our office is located), you’ll probably join us in awarding our building with one star. Not only have we waited for the lift for over 20 minutes, but our parking charges are Dh 7,500 per annum.