The Marjan Beach masterplan is about to clear its first real milestone. Marjan Group CEO Abdulla Al Abdouli told Khaleej Times on the sidelines of Arabian Travel Market in Dubai that earthworks on the first phase of the waterfront district will be finished within the next two months — the point at which raw desert and reclaimed shoreline become buildable plots. The full programme runs for a decade and covers roughly 85 million square feet, which Al Abdouli called one of the biggest masterplans ever launched in Ras Al Khaimah. For anyone tracking how fast the emirate’s coastline is changing, that is the number worth holding on to.
What Marjan Actually Announced
Earthwork is the unglamorous part of any coastal development: stripping, levelling and moving material so that foundations can follow. Al Abdouli confirmed the first phase of that work at Marjan Beach wraps within two months, and that plots and sites have already been secured by Wasl, Omniyat and Beyond — three developers with substantial Dubai track records. Their early commitment is a reasonable signal that the district is being taken seriously by the wider UAE development market, not just by Ras Al Khaimah’s own institutions.
The Marjan Beach masterplan allocates around 60 per cent of its area to residential use, with 6.5 million square feet set aside as green and public land. The stated mix runs from exclusive waterfront enclaves to family-focused neighbourhoods, sitting alongside hospitality, cultural and lifestyle components. In practice that means the district is being planned as somewhere people live rather than purely as a resort strip — a meaningful difference for how the area will feel in five years.
Marjan also used ATM to launch the Marjan Digital Universe, a virtual platform that lets prospective investors walk through the master developer’s projects and masterplans without flying in. It is a sales tool, but a telling one: the emirate is now pitching to buyers who have never set foot in Ras Al Khaimah.
How This Fits the Wider Al Marjan Island Story
Al Marjan Island is a 2.7 million square metre man-made archipelago of four coral-shaped islands, and it has become the centre of gravity for almost everything happening on the RAK coast. Our Al Marjan Island guide covers the existing resorts, the beaches and how the islands connect to the mainland.
Al Abdouli said infrastructure projects across the island are running on track, while acknowledging that supply chain constraints have affected delivery timelines — a candid note that is worth registering given how many launches the emirate is juggling at once. The headline project remains Wynn Al Marjan Island, the region’s first fully integrated gaming resort, whose opening moved from March 2027 to September 2027 when Wynn Resorts updated investors in August.
Marjan Beach is a different proposition from Wynn. Wynn is a single destination asset designed to pull international visitors; Marjan Beach is a decade-long neighbourhood build that will slowly change the residential character of the coast. Both are betting on the same underlying trend — that Ras Al Khaimah can hold visitors and residents who would previously have defaulted to Dubai.
What This Means for Visitors and Buyers
In the short term, very little changes for travellers. Earthworks are not a visitor attraction, and the first phase completing in November or December 2026 simply means construction hoardings and vertical building start appearing along a stretch of coast that is currently flat and empty. If you are visiting Al Marjan Island over the next two winters, expect active construction on parts of the island alongside fully operating resorts — the existing beach resorts in Ras Al Khaimah continue to run normally throughout.
For buyers and long-stay residents, the ten-year horizon is the honest framing. A masterplan of this size delivers in waves, and the early phases will be the ones defining pricing, amenity quality and how walkable the district ends up being. The presence of Wasl, Omniyat and Beyond suggests a spread of price points rather than a single luxury tier, though nothing has been confirmed on pricing.
For everyone else, the practical takeaway is that RAK’s coastline is going to look materially different by 2030. If you are planning a trip before the building work peaks, our guide to the best time to visit Ras Al Khaimah and the wider best beaches in Ras Al Khaimah roundup are the places to start.
Source: Khaleej Times