Mubadala Development has begun filling its new central business district on Sowwah Island despite the gloomiest property market conditions in the country’s history.

Abu Dhabi’s strategic investment company has announced it has signed a deal with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts to build a hotel with 200 rooms and 125 hotel apartments next to the central Sowwah Square project on the island. It will join another hotel being built by Rosewood, the US luxury operator, on the other side of Sowwah Square and a planned Viceroy hotel, catering to the boutique business market.

Four Seasons had been planning a hotel in Dubai’s Festival City, overlooking Al Badia golf course, but put the project on ice last year.

The National