12:40 31-12-2025

Mercedes-Benz City in Dubai: Binghatti partnership, luxury district, and a bold diversification play

Mercedes-Benz teams with Binghatti to build Mercedes-Benz City in Dubai, an 836,000 sq m luxury district. What this real estate push means for the brand.

Mercedes-Benz has announced an unexpected move: together with developer Binghatti, the company plans to build Mercedes-Benz City in Dubai—a large-scale premium complex in the Meydan district. The project is set to span more than 836,000 square meters. The concept is a city within a city, with luxury housing, commercial boulevards, parks, and spaces for sport and wellness arranged so that everyday needs can be met on foot, without constant dependence on a car.

A core idea is to translate the brand’s automotive design language into architecture. Visually, the plan calls for a multi-story ensemble of several towers with amenities tailored to a well-heeled clientele for whom service, privacy, and a recognizable branded aesthetic matter. For Binghatti, the development extends an ongoing collaboration: in central Dubai, the partners are simultaneously building a 65-story skyscraper linked to the Mercedes name.

Set against this news, the question of priorities naturally arises. Mercedes-Benz’s car business is under pressure: in Europe, demand for electric vehicles is uneven, margins are slipping, and Chinese competitors are gaining ground both in China and on export markets. Moving into real estate therefore reads as a bid to diversify and monetize the brand beyond automobiles—potentially lucrative, yet carrying reputational risks.

If delivered at the stated scale, Mercedes-Benz City could become a showcase for how a carmaker evolves into a lifestyle brand. Yet the outcome will hinge on whether Mercedes can, at the same time, safeguard what matters most: the exclusivity and technological caliber of its future models—the reasons customers, in essence, continue to believe in the value of the Mercedes star.