Ocean Residences Development has confirmed that Meyer Werft will build a vessel for the company.
The German shipbuilder had announced on 30 July that it "could win for themselves another newbuilding order" from Ocean Residences: an 84,800-gt "residential yacht" with 117 apartments called Njord.
Ocean Residences said on Monday that the newbuilding contract is "fully executed and binding", chief operating officer Alain Gruber said.
"We did ask Meyer to correct the language 'could' in the announcement and on other social media platforms," he told TradeWinds.
Meyer Werft's announcement came 18 months after Ocean Residences eventually scuttled plans with DIV Shipbuilding for an 81,000-gt Njord and deliver it in 2024.
The ship, which will hold about 1,000 passengers and crew if built, will be powered by LNG and equipped with a hybrid battery-power system.
It will have a top speed of 21 knots and engines that can be converted to use greener fuels of the future.
It will also be equipped to conduct scientific and oceanographic research for charities, missions and urgent causes.
"We are fortunate to have the opportunity to partner with Meyer Werft, a company that has kept its shipbuilding company on course for 226 years," chief executive Kristian Stensby said.
Stensby, who founded now-defunct Premier Cruises in 1990, set up Ocean Residences several years ago.
In 2002, several of Stensby’s Ocean Residences leadership team launched The World, a 43,188-gt ship with 165 residents that sails around the globe.
Neither Ocean Residences nor Meyer Werft immediately returned calls or disclosed financial information regarding the possible newbuilding.
This would not be the only current initiative to build a residential ship.
Australian entrepreneurs Alister Punton and Shannon Lee have been working since 2016 on launching a ship with 627 condominiums that Croatian shipyard Brodosplit is expected to build.
In the early 1990s, the late Florida engineer Norm Nixon envisaged a 50,000-resident Freedom Ship-City at Sea that is still being chased by Roger Gooch, chief executive of Freedom Cruise Line International.
