AHS Tower Dubai is the new identity for the Sheikh Zayed Road Clock Tower, whose crown is being removed to make way for a redesign by Shaun Killa, the architect behind the Museum of the Future, Arabian Business reports. AHS Properties, the developer behind the project, is relaunching the landmark as a Grade-A office destination, with details confirmed by Emirates 24/7 and the project’s own site.
There is a detail worth sitting with: the clock was never actually installed. The original design reserved space for a clock face within the crown, which is why generations of drivers called the building Big Ben without ever seeing it tell the time. The crown itself is now coming down, an engineering exercise complicated by the tower’s position directly beside a Metro station on the city’s busiest road.
AHS Tower Dubai: what the new design brings
The relaunched tower will hold Grade-A offices, two full floors of facilities and services, winter gardens, indoor green space, health and wellness facilities, social hubs and Sky Galleries on the upper levels. It is AHS Properties’ first commercial project after building a name in ultra-luxury residential real estate.
The numbers attached to the project are notable. Bloomberg reports that AHS acquired the tower in 2024 for around $120 million (Dh441 million), and that sales of commercial units have exceeded $700 million (Dh2.57 billion). The building had sat empty for nearly a decade before the purchase.
The Killa connection
Shaun Killa’s hand is on both ends of the street: the Museum of the Future, which hosted Huawei’s Pura 90s launch and signed a partnership with Kia, closes on September 1 for its own transformation. The Clock Tower’s new exterior is his too, in a collaboration with AHS.
The project is another marker of how Dubai treats its older buildings: the real-estate liquidity push and fractional ownership apps are about moving existing property, while AHS is rewriting a familiar landmark entirely.
What is AHS Tower?
AHS Tower is the new identity for the Clock Tower building on Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai. AHS Properties is turning the long-vacant landmark into a Grade-A office destination with facilities floors, winter gardens and Sky Galleries.
What happened to the Clock Tower’s clock?
There was never a clock. The original design only reserved space for a clock face within the crown, which is why residents called it Big Ben. The crown itself is now being removed for the new design.
Who designed the new AHS Tower?
The new exterior is by Shaun Killa, the architect behind Dubai’s Museum of the Future, in a collaboration with AHS Properties. It is AHS’s first commercial real estate project.
