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Get ready for the Leaning Burj of Abu Dhabi…

An Italian developer has this week announced its intention of building a $30bn smart city somewhere in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

Stile Italiano Real Estate Industry (Sirei) says "Renaissance City" will cover 290ha and accommodate 30,000 residents. This would make it about half the size of Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s existing smart city project, which was initiated eight years ago. 

Sirei says the city will blend the cultures of Italy and the UAE, including an Italian garden and a 10,000m2 mosque. It will also have 300,000m2 of retail space, 160,000m2 of hotels, 13,000 flats and villas and 260,000m2 of office space.

Sirei is a group of Italian real estate companies led by founders Massimo and Gianluca Mazzi and architect Paolo Caputo. The company says a significant amount of funding is already in place for the city, and it is understood to be in discussions with the Pramerica, the real estate investment arm of the Prudential insurance group, for more. So far, Sirie is thought to have spent $270,000 on the design. 

Sirei plan to bring the project to potential investors in the UAE this September. It has not yet known where Renaissance City might be built. Gianluca Mazzi said: "We have had some suggestions and proposals, but still we haven’t decided the location." 

He  indicated that the design could act as a kind of template that could be adapted to fit with other schemes, such as Dubai’s Mall of the World project, which was also announced this week – albeit with funding and an actual site.

Sirei has also said it is in talks with Masdar City in order to collaborate on energy-efficient design.

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