Site visit: Yasmeen Rotana, Syria

The Yasmeen Rotana is a five-star hotel in Syria.

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High-profile developments in Syria are an attractive proposition for construction firms looking to expand in to new markets.

One such development, the Yasmeen Rotana hotel, has attracted a significant amount of interest from construction professionals. Upon completion, not only will it be the second international five-star hotel in Damascus, but also the newest five-star hotel in the capital, and the flagship development for new Syrian developer Bena Properties, part of Cham Holding.

“The Yasmeen Rotana is the first-ever project for Bena since we started real-estate activities in 2009,” says CEO Hawazen Esber. “We are using the best-available contractors and consultants to develop a first-class hotel. There is a lack of those in Syria at the moment, especially in Damascus, so we believe this will be a good addition to the hospitality sector.”

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Located on the Damascus-Beirut highway, the project is 15 minutes from the heart of the city and 35 minutes from Damascus International Airport. When finished, it will have 338 rooms and cater to the business community, and to tourists visiting the historic capital.

“It is a project in a city that is really lacking hotels, so it is not a speculative project. It is also in a country which has made a political decision to encourage tourism by providing tax exemptions for tourism projects,” Esber explains.

Construction of the Yasmeen Rotana has been divided into three packages, one for the enabling works (piling, shoring and excavation), a second for the raft foundation and a third for the main construction work.

“It was divided this way so we could get on with construction work while the design was being finalised, so we did not have to wait for the design to be completely finished before we could start,” says Osama Soudan, Bena's projects manager.

According to Bena, five contractors put forward bids for the project, including Man (Lebanon), ACC (Lebanon), Arabtec (UAE), Bouygues (France, with a local partner Yaquobian) and Marasem/Bin Ladin (Saudi Arabia).

Arabtec won the contract largely on price, but also because Bena considered them to be one of the biggest contracting firms in the region, with an impressive portfolio, which was important for a project counting on quick construction and a quality build.

“Our plan and our contract with Arabtec says we will finish in March 2012,” says Soudan.

“Right now we are a couple of months behind schedule, but we are working with Arabtec to do whatever is required to mitigate these delays. There are some good signs and some bad signs, but I am still very hopeful that we will meet that date.”

Soudan says the main reasons for project delays lie in obtaining labour and materials.