28 July 2026 | Newsroom

The Abu Dhabi-based developer behind the Burj Khalifa is investing $6.5 billion in Georgia — the largest foreign direct investment in the country’s recent history. Two mega-developments will reshape Tbilisi and Batumi. Western European media have barely mentioned it.

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In September 2025, in Abu Dhabi, in front of two heads of state, Eagle Hills — the Abu Dhabi real-estate developer led by EMAAR Group founder Mohamed Alabbar, best known outside the Middle East as the developer of the Burj Khalifa — signed a $6.5 billion investment agreement with the Government of Georgia. It is the largest foreign direct investment in Georgia’s recent history, and it is structured as a rare public–private partnership: the Georgian State holds a 33 % stake in the joint venture.

Two mega mixed-use projects sit at the heart of the deal, both designed to accelerate Georgia’s tourism and economy over the coming decade.

Tbilisi Waterfront — Krtsanisi Park

Inside the Tbilisi city limits, on the banks of the Kura River, Eagle Hills is developing 6.3 million square metres — a masterplanned riverside district combining luxury residences, retail parks, hotel complexes and community spaces. The Krtsanisi Park development is intended as a new anchor for the eastern side of the Georgian capital.

Gonio Yachts & Marina

On the Black Sea coast between Batumi and Gonio, a 260-hectare maritime hub will bring beachfront properties, luxury branded hotels, a large marina for yachts, and extensive recreational parks. The Gonio development is designed to reposition the Georgian coast as a genuine high-end Mediterranean-scale destination — an ambition Georgia has held for years and now, for the first time, has the capital to pursue at scale.

The projected impact

• Over $7 billion added to Georgia’s GDP over the next decade
• More than 31,000 new jobs
• Anticipated 350,000+ additional international visitors per year
• Physical construction already heavily underway; first flagship residential and lifestyle areas to open around 2029

Early phases of the residential release have already tested market demand. Reports from the developer indicate that the first three launches — starting with a 300-lot phase in early 2026 — sold out on their opening days, with a majority of buyers from Georgia itself and the wider region.

The story the Western European press has largely missed

What is remarkable is not just the scale of the investment, but how quietly it has landed in the Western European press. A $6.5 billion agreement of this size, in a country of Georgia’s population, with a globally recognised developer at the helm, would ordinarily attract sustained coverage in the European economic and infrastructure press. Instead, most of the reporting has come from Georgian, Middle-Eastern and specialised property publications — with only occasional mentions in mainstream Western European titles.

It is time to look at Georgia through a broader lens. The country is a small state that has, over two decades, built a reformist reputation, a competitive business environment, a stable macroeconomic framework and a genuine ambition to be a European bridge between the Black Sea, Central Asia and the Middle East. The Eagle Hills deal is not a one-off — it fits a broader arc that includes the Middle Corridor logistics build-out, the modernisation of Batumi’s port infrastructure, and the country’s push to attract European private aviation to new airfields such as the Ambassadori Aviation Village in Kakheti.

Georgia is changing. The Western European conversation about the country deserves to catch up with what is actually being built there.

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Under the High Patronage of the Honorary Consulate of Georgia in Luxembourg.