The Fairmont Palm Jumeirah Hotel was supposed to come to fruition on the man-made, palm tree-shaped island in Dubai this year, but the struggle to find funding for the project meant that the completion date was set back.

However, the development is back on track as IFA Hotels & Resorts announced this week that it has secured US$115 million in funding for the hotel, through its asset management subsidiary IFA Hotel Investments, from UK-based Standard Chartered Bank.

Thanks to this new finance deal, the hotel is now expected to unfold its fronds in the first quarter of 2012. Commenting on the news, IFA Hotel Investments' president, Joe Sita, said "This is the first new foreign-bank funding for a Dubai hotel real estate development we have seen in a very long time.

It is evidence of renewed confidence in the region and the industry and confirmation of ongoing confidence in the IFA Group and its projects on the Palm Jumeirah." When completed, this will be IFA Hotels & Resorts fifth development on the trunk of Palm Jumeirah and construction has started on the group's Kingdom of Sheba development on the palm's crescent.

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