Twenty three investors are expected to commence the construction work on a USD 1 billion project in the new downtown area in Amman , the capital of Jordan , early next year. This will be undertaken by Jordan 's largest property investment firm, state-owned, Mawared.
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Downtown project in Jordan |
Almost half the 1 million square meter space allocated for the project will be soon transformed to be the prime area of the capital's centre into a high tech commercial and residential hub. Infrastructure work on the site will be finished next March by Abdali Investment and Development, a 50-50 joint venture between Mawared and Saudi based Oger group, which is owned by the family of late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
Land purchase deals were expected to be concluded soon for most of the 480,000 square metres of office space in the Abdali estate, with bids coming from a mix of investors such as Gulf Arab and Jordanian real estate firms, as well as services and financial houses.
Abdali's master plan drawn up by Beirut based Laceco architects and engineers envisages eight towers and a large pedestrian spine, along with the campus of an American University and a convention centre on a 35 hectares site. Mawared has been set up as the financially independent property investment group to develop and invest in large tracts of prime state land worth billions of dollars in Amman , Zarqa ( Jordan 's second largest city) and other urban centres.
The government had given Mawared 2,592 hectares of land once occupied by army barracks in prime downtown area of Amman and Zarqa, making it among Jordan's top five land owners.Many Gulf Arab investors flush with oil revenue are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the Jordanian property market, attracted by relatively low prices compared with other regional markets where prices have risen sharply.
The Zarqa New Garden City project on a 25 million square meter site involves a 500,000-population city where the retail centre would remain owned by Mawared to help generate long-term revenue. Mawared was also in negotiations with a property developer to invest in 12 hectares in the Red Sea port of Aqaba , a major resort destination which the government has transformed as a special economic zone that has seen in the last year a flurry of real estate projects.
