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Dubai: A ‘different world’
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
Clint Murphy, the new engineering principal in charge of North American operations for Jafza South Carolina LLC, said while he’d acquired a wealth of engineering and development experience over the course of his career, nothing prepared him for the scope of development he encountered upon moving to Dubai in 2006.
A graduate of the Purdue University School of Engineering and the Indiana University School of Law, Murphy was steeped in engineering management, tender process support, real estate development, construction management and business development-related functions.
After beginning his career as an engineer-in-training with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Louisville, Ky., he’d worked with Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp. and Citizens Gas and Coke Utility, both in Indiana.
He went on to work in Jacksonville, Fla., with HPA Inc. and, later, Applied Technology and Management.
“Even with all that experience and all the projects I’d been on, Dubai was a whole other order of magnitude,” he said. “Significantly so.”
The city-state, which has a population of 1.4 million, is only 1,500 square miles — making it roughly three-quarters the size of Rhode Island.
Flurry of development
Despite its diminutive size, Murphy said it’s believed that about one-third of all the construction cranes in the world are currently deployed there.
“If you’re an engineer you feel like you’re literally walking into the mecca of construction and engineering as you step off your flight at Dubai International Airport,” he said.
“It was an early morning in August, and I was just floored by the amount of activity that was going on.”
Murphy said while emirate culture is markedly different from that of the United States, he found the people of Dubai to be warm and welcoming.
“Only 11% of the people who live there are actually from there, so the whole economy is set up to rely on the help of people from other countries,” he said.
While it is inviting, Dubai is also an expensive country to live in; so much so that Dubai-based employers are required by law to provide their employees with a housing and transportation allowance above and beyond the employee’s salary, Murphy said.
Employment contract required
Foreign workers traveling to Dubai will not be granted a work visa by the government unless they can produce an employment contract with those allowances clearly spelled out.
One the most daunting tasks Murphy undertook after agreeing to work for ATM in Dubai was successfully fulfilling the United Arab Emirates’ requirements to obtain a professional license in program management for engineering and construction projects.
“They take their certifications very seriously, and it’s not a place where an international startup can make a go of it,” he said.
“To get the license, we needed to have completed 25 projects and had to produce a portfolio that contained information on five projects that we’d actually completed and five more that were still under way.
“All told, it took about a year,” Murphy said. “But once you get your license, things happen quickly. Despite a rigorous certification process, they go out of their way to promote development.”
Hot and humid
But business wasn’t the only climate Murphy had to grow accustomed to; Dubai’s hot-weather season typically begins in late April or early May and extends through October.
During those months daytime temperatures often hover between 100 degrees and 115 degrees, and 120-degree days are not uncommon.
“Even at night, it can still be 98 degrees in the summer and at the same time, it can be pretty humid. That’s why air conditioning is used everywhere,” Murphy said.
Because Dubai has a very limited waterfront, the latest phase of construction in the city-state involves the creation of offshore developments like the Palm and World islands that Murphy worked on, and the extension of the Dubai Creek and Arabian Canals.
Extending the waterfront
“When it comes to development, they’re always looking for creative ways to extend the waterfront,” he said.
That creativity also extends to architecture, making Dubai home to some of the most unusual buildings in the world.
“If I was an architect, that’s where I’d want to be,” he said. “It’s literally a blank slate where the farthest reaches of your imagination are acceptable. It’s a place where you are encouraged to be an individual and be creative.”
Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@scbiznews.com.
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