JORDAN
KINGDOM ON THE RISE
Never the development poster child, unlike some of its higher profile neighbours, Jordan has been quietly getting on with the job of diversifying its real estate product. From central Amman to coastal Aqaba, the Kingdom is - quite literally - on the rise.
With a young demographic make-up, active monarch and strong focus on education and development, Jordan is a solid prospect in a region beset by recent turmoil. Its long-term links to the GCC are also driving inward investment and, backed by its series of special economic zones, the country is taking its tourism and industrial offering to the next level.
COASTAL GATEWAY In late 2006, the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba unveiled plans to
woo the international investment community with a then US$3 billion development project on an unprecedented scale. Located 330 kilometres south of the capital, Amman, and 80 kilometres
from the World Heritage site at Petra, the 375-square-kilometre site has ‘mega city’ ambition with tourism as its centrefold, supported by demand for its emerging logistics and industrial hubs. Its status as the Aqaba Special Economic Zone (ASEZ), is being supported at both Government and private sector level with a raft of investor- friendly initiatives and programmes in place to drive ongoing levels of inward investment into what it hopes will transform the area into a major international gateway. Development of the King Hussein International Airport, with its ‘open
skies’ policy is leading to growing interest in using the airport for regional freight delivery – with an eye on facilitating reconstruction project access to Iraq, offering another dimension to the logistics possibilities served by development of its sea port. A handful of high profile projects have already made headlines, including the US$10 billion waterfront UAE-backed Marsa Zayed project, which is the Kingdom’s largest ever real estate and tourism development, and which hopes to become a global yachting destination contender. Te US$1 billion Saraya Al Aqaba mixed-use development will be home to a
sextet of luxury hotels as well as residential properties and a convention centre, while the US$1.4 billion Venetian waterway-inspired Ayla Al Oasis project will dramatically transform Aqaba by creating 17 kilometres of new seafront. ASEZ and the Aqaba Development Corporation, which owns Aqaba’s seaport, airport and strategic parcels of land as well as the development and management rights for these assets in addition to key infrastructure and utilities, acknowledge that the challenges of bringing the master plan to fruition are colossal, but argue that in creating a mega city with mixed-use appeal, tourism projects will rub shoulders with residential communities, and health, education, business and transportation opportunities will be maximised l
8 I CITYSCAPE I APRIL 2012
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