Historic boutique hotel plans in Egypt buried in red tape

Details from the interior of a 19th century building located near the Taz Palace in Islamic Cairo. Co-owner Shahira Mehrez would like to turn the structure into a boutique hotel but faces many challenges. Dana Smillie for The National

Caretaker Mahrouz Saber inside a room in a 19th century building located near the Taz Palace in Islamic Cairo. Dana Smillie for The National

Exterior view of a 19th century building in the Khalifa area of Islamic Cairo. Co-owner Shahira Mehrez would like to transform the structure into a boutique hotel but faces many challenges. Dana Smillie for The National

Details from the interior of a 19th century building in the Khalifa area of Islamic Cairo. Co-owner Shahira Mehrez would like to transform the structure into a boutique hotel but faces many challenges. Dana Smillie for The National

Detail showing a collapsing wall in a 19th century building in the Khalifa area of Islamic Cairo. Co-owner Shahira Mehrez would like to transform the structure into a boutique hotel but faces many challenges. Dana Smillie for The National

Details from the interior of a 19th century building located near the Taz Palace in Islamic Cairo. Co-owner Shahira Mehrez would like to turn the structure into a boutique hotel but faces many challenges. Dana Smillie for The National

Main entrance of a 19th century building located near the Taz Palace in Islamic Cairo. Co-owner Shahira Mehrez would like to turn the structure into a boutique hotel but faces many challenges. Dana Smillie for The National

Ceiling detail from the interior of a 19th century building located near the Taz Palace in Islamic Cairo. Dana Smillie for The National

Details from the interior of a 19th century building located near the Taz Palace in Islamic Cairo. Co-owner Shahira Mehrez would like to turn the structure into a boutique hotel but faces many challenges. Dana Smillie for The National

View from the rooftop into the courtyard. Dana Smillie for The National

Details from the interior of a 19th century building located near the Taz Palace in Islamic Cairo. Co-owner Shahira Mehrez would like to turn the structure into a boutique hotel but faces many challenges. Dana Smillie for The National

A 19th century building in the Khalifa area of Islamic Cairo. Co-owner Shahira Mehrez would like to transform the structure into a boutique hotel but faces many challenges. Dana Smillie for The National

A birds nest inside a 19th century building located near the Taz Palace in Islamic Cairo. Co-owner Shahira Mehrez would like to turn the structure into a boutique hotel but faces many challenges. Dana Smillie for The National

Details from the interior of a 19th century building located near the Taz Palace in Islamic Cairo. Co-owner Shahira Mehrez would like to turn the structure into a boutique hotel but faces many challenges. Dana Smillie for The National

It seemed to them such an obvious and elegant solution.

For years, the Islamic architecture aficionada Shahira Mehrez and a group of friends had been walking the back lanes and alleyways of Cairo’s historic Islamic neighbourhoods, seeking out its riches yet dismayed as they watched historic building after building being torn down to make way for ugly modern apartments.

They decided do a tiny part to save at least a tiny fraction of the heritage of one of the world’s great historical cities. A dozen or so friends pooled their resources and bought two 19th- century mansions on the main street of the 1,000-year-old city, thinking they might transform them into boutique hotels.

Cairo is odd in that unlike other great Islamic heritage cities such as Istanbul, Damascus, Aleppo, Zanzibar’s Old Town, Fez or Marrakech, almost none of its historic buildings have been made into hotels, even though there are hundreds of potential candidates.

Anyone creating a business in Cairo faces arduous hurdles: signatures from countless government agencies such as the investment authority, tax, labour, social security and health authorities, permissions to form the company and others to operate it, registrations with the district government.

Those who would open a boutique hotel face an entirely new layer of bureaucracy.

If your building is listed as a “heritage” building, then it falls under the charge of the ministry of culture, says Ahmed Mansour, who worked as a consultant to Unesco’s historic Cairo project until November 2014. If you have leased a structure listed as a “monument”, then it is probably owned by the ministry of religious endowments but falls under the jurisdiction of the ministry of antiquities.

Ms Mehrez’s group also has other problems. One of the buildings it owns is a small mansion on historic Cairo’s main street, south of Bab Al Zuwaila, just beyond the recently restored Taz Palace. The gorgeous yet severely dilapidated mansion, built in the 18th century but with a facade probably from about 1870, has enough space for about 12 guest rooms, some overlooking a tiny courtyard, others peeking out on the main street or a back street.

Ms Mehrez reckons it would take about $130,000 to $200,000 to renovate the building into a boutique hotel. But because one tenant claims a lease on a storeroom in the house, which is legally invalid because it was signed by his grandfather, her group is unable to register the title, even though the law gives it complete control. As a result, no bank would consider providing a mortgage for its renovation.

The group’s second property, about 500 metres further south, is a much larger mansion from about 1860 called the Sakna Bey house. Here they face a slightly different problem. When they bought the building years ago, one tenant was occupying a storeroom without a lease. Both this and the case of the smaller house have languished in legal proceedings for years, according to Ms Mehrez.

Her group also rented two apartments just outside Bab Al Zuwaila from the ministry of religious endowments that it hopes to renovate then rent out to artists or writers. These are registered as historic monuments, which adds a whole new layer of complications and restrictions.

Plumbing and electricity cannot be buried in the walls, nor can objects as essential as fire detectors be attached to the walls, nor can air conditioning be added, since these were not integral to the historic structure when it was built. The law restricts earning money from the monument.

About the only two recognised uses of monuments are for religious or cultural purposes, says Ms Mansour. As a result, sabils, hammams and other buildings are often quickly closed after they have been restored. Of 81 monuments around Cairo’s Citadel, only 38 are now in use.

Something needs to be done quickly to bring life and money to Cairo’s historic district, before what is left of its heritage is destroyed or allowed to rot.

One solution might be for the government to create a special task force to choose a handful of boutique hotel candidates yearly and fast-track them through the regulatory process and into operation. The hotels could be given tax incentives and subsidised loans.

Once a few hotels have proved themselves successful, other entrepreneurs would soon try to copy the idea. And who knows? Once tourism in Egypt regains its strength, a trickle of boutique hotels might turn into a flood, bringing a major economic boom to the often impoverished residents of Cairo’s most heritage-rich neighbourhoods.

In addition to employing local residents, the hotels could be a catalyst for other residents to cater to the guests, whether through sales of soft drinks and locally made crafts such as cotton fabrics or jars.

The local residents would be likely to keep their neighbourhoods cleaner, because it is in their economic interest. And the presence of tourists would also force the government to improve its garbage collection.

“We want people who will sit in the cafes, buy a coffee, buy the vegetables, walk along the streets, to get foreigners and tourists acquainted with Egypt,” Ms Mehrez says.

Patrick Werr has worked as a financial writer in Egypt for 25 years.

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