Timeline
| When | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2003–2004 | Construction starts. The Skyscraper Center gives 2003 for each tower it lists. Propsearch and Bayut give 2004 | The Skyscraper Center, Propsearch, Bayut |
| 2005–2007 | Towers completed. The Skyscraper Center lists the earliest (The Residences 6) as 2005, and The Residences 1, 3 and 5 as 2007 | The Skyscraper Center, Propsearch |
| 2007 | The cluster is complete: 1,056 apartments ready for occupation | Propsearch, Bayut, Wikipedia |
| 2009 | Building number 2 opens as the Ramada hotel, two years after the residential towers | Propsearch |
| 2026 | Propsearch reports that the Ramada has been renamed Wyndham Downtown Dubai | Propsearch |
Who built it
Emaar Properties, the master developer of Downtown Dubai, developed The Residences. Woods Bagot, the international architecture firm, designed it. Propsearch names the firm's UAE practice, and The Skyscraper Center and Wikipedia also credit Woods Bagot. The Skyscraper Center lists the towers as all-concrete residential buildings with two basement levels.
One of the first parts of Downtown Dubai
Propsearch calls The Residences the first towers built in what was then the new Dubai city centre. Wikipedia and Bayut both date its completion to 2007. Downtown Dubai as a whole was developed by Emaar and is home to Burj Khalifa, The Dubai Mall and The Dubai Fountain (Wikipedia). The cluster sits on Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Boulevard. The Skyscraper Center gives the address as 13 Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Boulevard. Propsearch describes the towers as arranged on a curving, landscaped podium that faces Burj Khalifa, the lake and Burj Park.
Not uniform, and not one building
The Residences is often described as if it were one tower. It's actually nine buildings of very different heights. The Residences 4, for example, has 29 floors, while The Residences 1 has 42. Building number 2 isn't a residential tower at all: it's a hotel-apartment building. Wikipedia's article describes a larger original scheme, with some planned towers never built. We couldn't confirm the details from a second source, so we leave them out here. The per-building breakdown is on the tower-by-tower page.
Don't confuse it with
- The Residence Burj Khalifa is a separate Emaar building. Propsearch records its construction as starting in March 2023, with three- to seven-bedroom apartments. It isn't part of this cluster.
- Building number 2 (Ramada, now Wyndham Downtown Dubai) sits inside the cluster but operates as hotel apartments, not privately owned residences.
What we couldn't confirm
We found no Emaar web page or press release about The Residences that is still online. The facts above come from building databases and property portals, and each one is supported by at least two of them unless we name a single source. Details still unconfirmed include launch prices, the exact launch date, and the floor counts of The Residences 6 and 9.
For apartment layouts, see unit types and sizes. If you have a question about the buildings, message us.