Mohammed Alabbar, the chairman and founder of Capital City Partners, the property developer tasked with realising the US$45 billion new capital city in Egypt, is no stranger to mega-projects in the country.
Mr Alabbar, also the chairman and founder of Dubai’s largest development firm, Emaar Properties, says Egypt is the most profitable market for Emaar.
The firm’s Egyptian subsidiary, Emaar Misr, has an investment portfolio of nearly $7 bn, with major luxury development projects such as Uptown Cairo, built over 4.5 million square metres and worth more than $1.5bn, according to Emaar Misr’s website.
The plans for Mr Alabbar’s latest and biggest project in Egypt, expected to house seven million residences upon completion, were unveiled on day two of the Egypt The Future conference held this month in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm El Sheikh.
He presented a scale-model of the proposed city to Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah El Sisi at the event, to much fanfare.
While Emaar denies rumours that it or its Egyptian unit would have a role in developing the new capital city, the centre would complement many of Emaar Misr’s existing projects.
Mivida, a $790 million residential community currently under construction in New Cairo, would be just minutes from the new capital via the Suez and Sokhna motorways.
Meanwhile, Emaar Drive, Emaar Misr’s $44.9m road project, which is also under construction, will connect Uptown Cairo to New Cairo, creating a string of development projects under Mr Alabbar stretching from the old capital to the new.
And additional Emaar Misr property development projects lie off the Emaar route, such as Marassi, a 6.5 million sq m gated north coast beach and golf resort.
This level of participation in Egypt’s property sector suggests a history of close collaboration with the Egyptian armed forces, which owns the vast majority of Egypt’s undeveloped desert land.
In February last year, Emaar Misr signed a sensitive deal with the Egyptian ministry of defence to construct Emaar Square, Uptown Cairo’s 150,000 sq m retail centre, on land previously used as military training grounds.
As for the new administrative capital, Mr Alabbar has made clear he has the full support of Mr El Sisi’s government.
“We have a deal with the government … we will split the profits,” he said declining to give further details, saying it is a private agreement between the parties involved.
Egypt The Future was originally proposed in June last year following the election of Mr El Sisi by the late Saudi Arabian leader King Abdullah as a donor event to help Egypt “overcome its economic crisis” . But Egypt is not the only beneficiary in the burgeoning partnerships with the Arabian Gulf. With the UAE property market not quite what it was when Mr Alabbar entered it prior to the global downturn of 2008, the Middle East and North Africa region’s most populous country has become a profitable destination for investment.
And the new capital offers an opportunity for the Dubai investor to assess returns from this fast-emerging market.
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