World Wide Auctioneers Ltd. has signed a 20-year lease at a 1 million-square-foot property in Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone. The firm plans to build a facility on the site to be used for the auctioning, trading and refurbishing of heavy equipment.

Eric Montandon, CEO of WWA Group, the parent company of World Wide Auctioneers, said in a release that inking the lease was “the most important milestone we have achieved to date toward the expansion of our company.” World Wide Auctioneers, which is based in Dubai, has been operating since 2002 out of a yard it rented from Dubai Ports World.

The Jebel Ali Free Zone, an economic zone that offers business and tax incentives to corporations, has been growing at a rapid pace, with more than 210 new firms signing up in the last three months. The Free Zone is located adjacent to the Dubai World Central development, the centerpiece of which will be the Dubai World Central Airport, due to be the world’s largest passenger and cargo airport. In total, the 54-square-mile development will be home to some 750,000 people by 2015, and will cost an estimated $33 billion.

World Wide Auctioneers holds auctions for mainly consigned equipment, capitalizing on the active Dubai construction market. The firm has auctioned more than $500 million worth of vehicles and equipment since early 2001, and has also operated auctions on behalf of franchise and joint venture partners in other markets around the world.

Posted: 05|30|07 at 7:27 am. Filed under: Auction News.