Ras Al Khaimah is positioning itself to attract multinational firms seeking expansion space amid a shortage of Grade A offices across the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Marjan’s Group Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer Tariq Bsharat told Arabian Business.
The emirate’s flagship developer is constructing five Grade A office towers in RAK Central as part of a broader push to diversify the local economy and accommodate both regional companies and international firms entering the market. The project will deliver around one million square feet of premium workspace, with leasing managed by JLL in partnership with the Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (RAKEZ).
“We build Grade A office space because we have RAK businesses that want to move in, and they are growing, and they want that,” Bsharat said in an interview. “But then we also have multinationals that, when they’re now looking at the UAE, they’re looking at where they should start, and Ras Al Khaimah is becoming more and more interesting. You have to build it for them, to make it an option. If you don’t build it, it’s never an option.”
The move comes as Riyadh and Dubai grapple with surging demand for prime office space. Riyadh’s Regional Headquarters programme has driven more than 600 multinational firms, including Morgan Stanley and PepsiCo, to establish regional bases in the Saudi capital, pushing Grade A occupancy to 98 per cent in mid-2025, data from Savills shows.
In Dubai, vacancy in prime locations has dropped to 1.7 per cent, with rents climbing more than 20 per cent year-on-year as new entrants from the US and Europe compete for limited supply, according to JLL and Knight Frank.
Ras Al Khaimah eyes corporate growth
Bsharat said the RAK Central project is designed to capture some of that spillover while meeting the emirate’s growing domestic demand.
JLL is our master agent,” he said. “It’s a partnership between us and RAKEZ. They have business licensing and do many other things, but in this, we’re leaning on them to help us develop this. As office is in limited supply in other emirates and pricing is going through the roof, we’ll see the benefit of that as well. But that wasn’t our initial goal – it was really for the growing demands of Ras Al Khaimah.”
He added that the emirate’s small business and freelance ecosystem is expanding rapidly, supported by RAKEZ’s record company registrations.
“A lot of people will be consultants, they’ll have their own business,” he said. “RAKEZ brought on 13,000 new businesses in 2024 alone. Their numbers are exploding, and in their own world they create an ecosystem.”
The office development forms part of Marjan’s RAK Central master plan, which integrates commercial, residential and lifestyle components. The district is expected to become the emirate’s main business and civic hub, with new housing, retail and public spaces designed to support incoming companies and their employees.
Earlier this week, Marjan and RAK Hospitality Holding merged to form a single entity under the Marjan name, consolidating Ras Al Khaimah’s real estate, hospitality and lifestyle divisions under one platform. The merger aims to accelerate diversification efforts and improve efficiency in delivering large-scale developments, executives said.
Bsharat said the emirate’s combination of strategic location, lower operating costs and improved infrastructure gives it a competitive edge.
“It’s about building for the future,” he said. “As the region’s major markets tighten, we want Ras Al Khaimah to be ready for what comes next.”
