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Unlike its neighbours, Saudi Arabia is a country without any high-rise master planned developments. But not for long. Emaar Properties’ Jeddah Gate project is currently under construction and leading the charge to rebuild Jeddah’s city centre.
There must be no other city in the world that struggles with out-of-control urban sprawl and yet has a 12km2 vacant lot in the city centre. But such is the case with Jeddah. Since the opening of Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport to the north of the city in 1981, the site of the old airport in the heart of Jeddah has remained undeveloped.
Reasons for this are varied and not exactly clear, but what is clear is that the site presents a unique opportunity to build a new city centre, without the hassles of an existing urban environment.
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The developer to first recognise this potential was Emaar Middle East, a joint venture company between Dubai’s Emaar Properties (61%) and Saudi Arabia’s Al Oula Development (39%). In late 2004, Emaar made a proposal to the Jeddah Municipality and subsequently began work on a master plan for the site in 2005.
“Based on this vision the municipality was convinced that they had a chance to do something, and since the government owns 55% of the land, they chose to go forward with investing and upgrading the area,” says Emaar’s director of sales and marketing Akram Omar.
Taking the reins of the project, the municipality engaged international consultants HOK to work on a new master plan in 2006. Involved in the process were nine land owners from the private sector who own 45% of the site.
The master plan was handed over in August 2008 and was composed of eight districts including a CBD, a financial district and King Abdullah towers — projects which are yet to be launched.
Meanwhile Emaar, as one of the land owners, has forged ahead with construction of its own development within the old airport, the US $1.6 billion (SAR6 billion) Jeddah Gate project.
Jeddah Gate
Jeddah Gate is spread over two land parcels within the site, the first on King Abdullah Road covers 413,000m2 and the second on Abdullah Al Suleiman Street covers 140,000m2. When completed it is envisaged the project will consist of around 70 mixed-use towers, 6000 residential units, 250,000m2 of office space, 75,000m2 of retail space as well as schools, mosques and green areas.
Omar, who is also an architect by profession, says the master plan is based on a series of communal plazas linked by pedestrian walkways, or spines.
“On King Abdullah road we have a crescent plaza surrounded with low rise plots; this creates a visual attraction to the site and attracts people to the area,” says Omar.
“This then links to the second community plaza which is surrounded by retail outlets, a mosque and serviced apartments. The spine then continues to a residential plaza and then to Jeddah Boulevard, which has a wide walkway with cafes and a light rail. The spine ends at the office plaza.”
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FEATURED COMMENT
Giving HOK credit is only partly correct. SB Architects completed the original conceptual master plan for Emaar in 2005.