About the program
An ambition worth
translating carefully.
DubaiFlorida translates the ambition of waterfront places in Dubai and across the Gulf for Florida’s climate, codes, and neighborhoods, with lagoon-led communities proposed for five Florida locations. It says plainly what is known and what is not.
Why this exists
The ambition is the part worth borrowing.
In Dubai and across the wider Gulf, a generation of waterfront places has treated water, shade, architecture, and evening life as one design problem, planned at the scale of a whole community. Those places are admired, debated, and often imitated. What deserves attention is the ambition underneath them.
That ambition can travel. Its details cannot. Florida has its own heat and humidity, storm seasons and flood zones, wetlands and coastlines, state and local permitting, and neighborhoods that were there long before any new plan. DubaiFlorida exists to ask what the ambition becomes when it answers to all of them.
What it is today
Lagoon-led communities, in pre-design.
Pre-design is under way with a building team and lagoon engineers.
Alongside that work, the site presents three kinds of material. Community directions describe kinds of places and what each asks of its site. Home paths set out the decisions a home involves, early and in order. Planning resources help you reach a first conversation with better questions.
Everything is labeled for what it is. A direction is a way of thinking about a kind of place. An image is an artist visualization. A form is a local preview that runs in your browser and sends nothing.
What it is not
What it is not.
Knowing what a site is not makes everything else on it easier to read.
- Not a listing service
- No home, lot, or community on this site is listed, priced, or held for anyone. The places described are concepts, not inventory.
- Not a lender
- DubaiFlorida does not make loans, review credit, or estimate what anyone can borrow. Only a licensed lender can do those things.
- Not a broker
- It does not represent buyers or sellers, negotiate for anyone, or arrange any transaction.
- Not a builder
- It does not offer design or construction services. That work is done by licensed professionals under written agreements.
- Not affiliated with the Government of Dubai
- Dubai is a source of inspiration only. DubaiFlorida is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the Government of Dubai or any developer or project in Dubai or the wider Gulf.
How work moves
Five steps, always in this order.
The order matters more than the speed. Each step is finished honestly before the next begins, and many ideas stop along the way. That is the process working.
- 01
Explore
Read the directions, home paths, and journal. Compare ideas freely, with no commitment and no pressure.
WhoYou, on this site
- 02
Plan
Organize a planning brief: the place you have in mind, the kind of home or community, your timing, and the questions you want answered.
WhoYou, with the planning brief preview
- 03
Study
Test a direction against a real site: survey, zoning, access, utilities, water, soils, and the permits it would need.
WhoLicensed architects, engineers, and consultants
- 04
Agree in writing
Set out roles, scope, responsibilities, and terms in project-specific written agreements, each reviewed by the parties’ own advisers.
WhoEvery party, with its own counsel
- 05
Build
Only then can construction begin, under permits and inspections, by the licensed and insured professionals named in those agreements.
WhoLicensed, insured contractors under contract
Who participates
The roles a community needs.
No architect, engineer, or builder is named on this site for any community. These are the roles every community needs, each with its own responsibility.
You
Explore ideas, organize a brief, and decide which questions to bring to the professionals who will work for you.
Architects and designers
Shape a direction into a design that fits its site, its climate, and its codes.
Engineers and consultants
Test what a site can carry: structure, drainage, water, traffic, utilities, and environmental conditions.
Licensed builders
Plan and carry out a defined scope of construction under contract, permits, and insurance.
Licensed lenders
Review credit, explain financing options, and make lending decisions. The site does none of these.
Real estate professionals and counsel
Represent the parties, review terms, and protect each person’s interests in any agreement.
Local review
Permitting offices and public processes decide whether a plan can proceed, and in what form.
How it fits
Part of BuildShare.
DubaiFlorida is a concept program developed within the BuildShare development platform. It is not a lending, brokerage, or construction business, and none of those activities takes place through this site.
Our commitments
Four commitments about the truth.
- 01
Say what is known
When a fact is known, state it. When it is not, say so plainly instead of filling the gap with a promise.
- 02
Label concepts as concepts
Every direction, image, and film is marked as a concept or artist visualization until verified facts replace it.
- 03
Keep decisions with professionals
Lending, legal, design, engineering, and construction decisions stay with the licensed people responsible for them.
- 04
Protect privacy
Collect nothing until a published notice, a named responsible entity, and separate permission for each kind of contact are in place.
Where things stand
Early materials, clearly labeled.
Images and films are artist visualizations, and every form is a local preview that sends nothing.
Begin exploring
See the community directions.
Each direction is presented as a concept, with the questions a site has to answer before it becomes a place.