The Corporate Finance & Advisory Division of Al-Tawfeek Financial Group has been appointed as the lead financial adviser by the consortium developing the Jeddah Central District Project. Eng. Khaled Abdulghaffar, CEO of the City Center Development Company, and Hassan Al-Amari, CEO of the Al-Tawfeek Financial Group, signed an agreement to this effect on Monday. Dedicated to redeveloping the central business hub and preserving the historic area, the project will be the largest city center urban project in the Arab World. In cooperation with the Jeddah Municipality, the vision is for the Jeddah Central District to once again become the heart of the city. The project will economically rejuvenate Jeddah Central District, create world class business, residential and retail facilities, revive the historical and cultural heritage of Jeddah, purify its marine environment and reunite the city with the sea. The end result will create job and housing opportunities for Jeddah's young population, 60 percent of which now is under 25. “It is a joint project between the private sector and the government bodies namely the municipality and the General Commission of Tourism and Antiquities,” said Gassan Sulaiman, Chairman of Jeddah Downtown Development Company. “The area has suffered from several environmental problems. The historical area has been corroded and the number of historical buildings has been reduced in the last 30 years from 900 to 480. So there is a real need to solve these issues now,” he said. “The amount of budget that we are sure about now is SR3,500 billion. It is going to be for developing the infrastructure and the lakes in that area. We hope that Jeddah residents will benefit from these projects after three years from now,” said Dr. Gassan. When asked if the compensations were going to be enough to guarantee alternative place of living for the residents vacating their homes, Dr. Gassan only said: Among the good things this project has is that there are lot of empty lands in it. “No one in Jeddah downtown zone has received any kind of evacuation orders and there will be no expropriations for a personal use, he said. The expropriations will only be applied for public services such as expanding roads and gardens and so on. Our proposal is different, our method is to convince and we have a strong reason to make the owners agree to our plans. It's for their sake and the city's as well,” he said. Replying to a question on the expected impact of the global financial crunch on the project, Dr. Gassan said to finance short-term projects will be a real problem. “We are engaged in medium- and long-term projects; the first project will be launched after three years. We will pass the financial crisis by that time,” he said. The Kingdom, he said, was least affected by the global financial crisis. “This will attract a lot of foreign investors and financial establishments to the Kingdom as they will see it a secure place. This will solve the shortage of liquidity,” he hoped. – SG __
