AtkinsRéalis has been appointed to master plan BAYN, ORA Developers' 4.8 million sq m waterfront community in Ghantoot, anchored by 1.2 km of natural Arabian Gulf beachfront.
June 17, 2026 | Riya Malhotra | UAE | Real Estate
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AtkinsRéalis has been appointed by ORA Developers to deliver master planning, infrastructure, and public realm design services for BAYN, ORA's flagship waterfront community in Ghantoot, positioned strategically within the Dubai–Abu Dhabi growth corridor.
The 4.8 million square metre development represents one of the most significant single waterfront masterplans currently in pre-construction in the UAE, both in scale and in the breadth of programme. More than half of BAYN's total footprint will be allocated to open spaces, landscaped areas, and water features, with the project anchored by 1.2 kilometres of natural Arabian Gulf beachfront and more than seven kilometres of waterfront.
BAYN's master plan brings together residential districts, public spaces, mobility networks, and community-focused amenities into a single integrated coastal destination. The development will include a marina, lagoons, promenades, parks, sports facilities, retail offerings, hospitality spaces, and community amenities, structured around interconnected districts, green corridors, and coordinated infrastructure.
The phased structure is designed to support daily living, long-term resilience, and incremental growth as the community develops, meaning BAYN is being conceived as a destination that activates progressively rather than landing fully formed at handover.
Matthew Tribe, Senior Vice President, Buildings and Places at AtkinsRéalis Middle East and Africa, positioned BAYN within a wider regional pattern, characterising the project as reflective of how waterfront communities across the region are evolving, shaped around how people live, move, and connect over time. He framed AtkinsRéalis's involvement from the earliest design stages as enabling the application of global master-planning expertise alongside regional insight to shape a place defined by quality, adaptability, and a strong sense of place.
The framing is editorially significant. The shift Tribe describes, from waterfront as a product to waterfront as a coherent coastal destination, is the differentiation that distinguishes integrated master-planned communities like BAYN from project-by-project waterfront developments that have characterised earlier UAE cycles.
For ORA Developers, the appointment signals what the developer is prioritising at this scale. Amr Abdel Moneim, Chief Technical Officer at ORA Developers, framed BAYN around a considered approach to how people experience the spaces they are in, describing the design priority as carrying the clarity of the long-term vision into precise, efficient, and high-quality execution that feels grounded, connected to its natural setting, and responsive to everyday life.
Abdel Moneim characterised AtkinsRéalis's involvement from the earliest stages as bringing the world-class expertise and rigour required for a development of this scale, and positioned BAYN as a commitment to deliver "without compromise" a coastal community defined by quality, connectivity, and long-term value for residents, visitors, and the wider Dubai-Abu Dhabi growth corridor.
Ghantoot has been quietly emerging as one of the UAE's most strategically attractive new coastal development zones. The location sits directly on the Dubai-Abu Dhabi corridor, offering connectivity to both emirate centres within approximately a 30-minute drive, meaning developments there serve both markets simultaneously rather than competing within either.
The area combines rare beachfront land, a category that has become structurally constrained in mature Dubai and Abu Dhabi waterfront markets, with the kind of long-term placemaking potential that benefits master-planned approaches. BAYN's 4.8 million sq m positioning within this setting signals ORA's read that the Ghantoot coastal corridor is at the pivot point between under-utilised land and established mixed-use destination.
For developers, master planners, infrastructure consultants, contractors, and FM operators across the UAE, three signals stand out from the BAYN appointment.
First, the Ghantoot corridor is now established as a third strategic UAE coastal cluster alongside Dubai's existing waterfront destinations and Abu Dhabi's coastal developments. Expect further named developer announcements in the Ghantoot zone over the next 12 to 18 months.
Second, the structural emphasis on more than half of total area allocated to open space, landscape, and water features marks a meaningful shift in how large-format UAE waterfront masterplans are being designed. The conventional model, high built density with limited public open space, is being explicitly inverted at this scale.
Third, the integrated programme (residential, marina, hospitality, retail, sports, community amenities) under a single masterplan creates an unusually broad operational pipeline. From 2028 onwards, BAYN's phased delivery will support significant FM, community management, retail leasing, and marina operations contracts.
Sources: AtkinsRéalis announcement of its appointment by ORA Developers as master planner for BAYN, dated 16 June 2026, distributed via AtkinsRéalis corporate press release and Construction Week Online
