JEDDAH: Cityscape Jeddah 2011 ended on Monday on a high note with a significant number of major projects launched and strategic agreements signed.
Khaled Al-Aboodi, CEO and general manager of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), a subsidiary of the Islamic Development Bank Group, and Fahad Al-Mutawa, CEO of Ewaan, chose Cityscape Jeddah as the venue to sign a financing agreement for all future projects of Ewaan Global Residential Company. The company also signed a memorandum of understanding with Dar Al-Tamleek during the event.
"The event showed how the Saudi real estate market has developed in recent times. Four years ago, Saudi companies used to go to Dubai to pitch for investors. Now, international and regional investors come to Saudi Arabia to seek opportunities, thanks to Cityscape," Al-Mutawa said.
Hassan Al-Najjar of Ewaan added: "This year, we used the event as a platform to position our brand and to launch sales for Al Fareeda Residential Project after acquiring our off-plan sales permit from the Ministry of Commerce. The full project is scheduled to be completed within the next 24-30 months."
An annual highlight of the event is the Cityscape Awards for Real Estate in Saudi Arabia, sponsored this year by Samsung, which were announced.
The winners are chosen by a panel of industry professionals and this year the Best Residential Project Award (Future) went to Rayadah Investment Company for their project Vertical Medina, while Sumou Real Estate Development Company won the Best Urban Design and Master Planning Award for Bawabat Makkah, and Injaz Development Company won the award for Best Waterfront Development. Emaar Middle East, a subsidiary of global property developer Emaar Properties PJSC, won the Best Commercial, Office and Retail Project Award (Future) for its Jeddah Gate development.
The award was received by Ahmad Al Kulli, general manager of Emaar Middle East.
One of the magnets of Cityscape Jeddah is the Jeddah Real Estate Summit that took place alongside the exhibition and this year it featured 35 CEO-level speakers and 100 senior-level delegates who joined the 13 panel sessions.
Among the most prominent was Sami Mohsen Baroum, chairman of Knowledge Economic City, who described how economic cities drive diversification in the Kingdom and how they will contribute to meeting the demand for sustainable supply of real estate properties and create healthy communities.
Ithmaar Development Company (IDC) exhibited its flagship project at the Citycape Jeddah and announced the completion of the preliminary development phase - encompassing reclamation, master-planning and infrastructure design.
Conceived and developed by IDC and located in Bahrain, the $ 1.6 billion Dilmunia project is targeted to become the region's biggest wellness and vitality location, providing a prospering community with a balanced lifestyle. Created to take advantage of the burgeoning health and wellness industry, Dilmunia offers investors an opportunity to develop projects designed to tap into this fast growing industry.
IDC CEO Mohammed Khalil Alsayed said: "We are proud to announce the completion of the preliminary phase of the project and are now preparing to tender for infrastructure construction. We will hit another milestone in Q4 2011 when we commence infrastructure development, strongly reaffirming our belief in the feasibility of well planned projects in Bahrain." During the conference, IDC also highlighted its recognition of the tremendous opportunities that the affordable housing space in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia offers.
Sponsors of Cityscape Jeddah 2011 included Sumou Real Estate (principal sponsor), Ewaan (founding sponsor), Aloula Real Estate (gold sponsor) and Raysan Arabia (silver sponsor).
Jeddah Gov. Prince Mishaal bin Majed, opened the event on Saturday that was organized by IIR Middle East and National Exhibitions Company (NEC) for the third year in a row.
"Cityscape Jeddah received a record number of participants for the event's three-day duration. We are very pleased with the outcome of this year's event and happy to see that the participants utilized the full potential of Cityscape Jeddah's unique portfolio of exhibition, conference and awards," said Deep Marwaha, group director of Cityscape Saudi Arabia.
"Once again the event proved to be the Kingdom's key gathering point for industry decision makers, international investors, developers, government and investment authorities, leading architects, designers, consultants and all senior professionals involved in the design and construction of real estate projects. However, Cityscape Jeddah 2011 was different to the two preceding years in that many of the projects previously displayed have now materialized and many exhibitors used the event for promotion of completed projects. Also, this year a number of key strategic alliances were formed and we witnessed many exciting announcements," he added.
© Arab News 2011
